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UC-NRLF 


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THE  SPIRIT 

of 

POLISH  HISTORY 


Antoni  Choloniewski 


The    Spirit 
of    Polisk    History 


Translated  by 
Mme.  JANE  ARCTOWSKA 


'.    \  .    '  '  -    '  '  '  . 

'  3  J  »''^-'>*J,*i''J*-» 


9     • 


New  York 
THE  POLISH  BOOK  IMPORTING  CO.,  Inc. 

1918. 


Copyright  1918 

By 
The  Polish  Book  Importing  Co.,  Inc. 


CONTENTS. 


Page: 

One  Thousand  Years  of  History 7 

The  Character  of  Social  Life  in  Poland lo 

The  People  and  the  King 14 

The  Polish  Nobility 17 

The  Unions 20 

Liberties  as  a  Prerogative  of  One  Large  Class  of  People 27 

Religious  Toleration 34 

Jurisdiction 39 

The  Polish  Wars 44 

Poland  the  Liberator 49 

Poland  in  Advance  of  Continental  Europe 55 

The  Downfall  of  the  Polish  State 60 

The  Significance  of  Polish  History  at  the  Present  Time 63 


^Ubb  i 


I. 

ONE  THOUSAND  YEARS  OF  HISTORY 

THE    ANTIQUITY    OF    POLAND — TERRITORY — ROLE    OF    POLAND    IN    EUROPE — 
INTELLECTUAL    CULTURE — FALL    OF    THE     STATE — LIFE    OF    THE    COUNTRY 

AFTER  THE  PARTITIONS 

Poland,  that  today  is  being  reborn  to  an  independent  life,  is  a 
country  of  ancient  and  noble  traditions.  Powerful  and  independent 
as  early  as  the  tenth  century,  Poland  (at  that  time  situated  between 
the  Vistula,  the  Oder  and  the  Warthe  Rivers)  developed  into  a 
mighty  State  under  the  dynast}^  of  the  Jagellons,  surpassing  the 
other  European  states  in  area.  From  then  on  Poland  extended  from 
the  Carpathian  mountains  to  the  Dwina  River  and  from  the  Blark 
sea  to  the  Baltic.  Under  the  successive  reign  of  forty  Kings,  through 
the  space  of  more  than  a  thousand  years,  Poland  developed  her 
strength,  placing  it  many  times  at  the  service  of  other  countries  and 
earning  again  and  again  titles  of  eternal  glory. 

Poland,  situated  on  what  was  then  the  border  of  Eastern 
Europe — separating  two  different  worlds — was  the  rampart  that 
for  hundreds  of  years  safeguarded  Europe  and  Christianity  from  the 
invasions  of  the  Turks  and  the  Mongols. 

The  long  struggle  against  these  barbarians,  who  menaced 
Europe,  was  begun  in  1241  by  King  Henry  the  Pious  at  the  battle 
of  Lignica.  Jan  Sobieski,  in  1683,  struck  the  decisive  blow  to 
Turkish  power  under  the  walls  of  Vienna. 

Europe  could  never  have  developed  as  it  did,  had  not  the  bar- 
barian invaders  who  had  overrun  Eastern  Europe  for  five  hundred 
years  been  checked  by  the  victorious  resistance  of  the  Poles.  In  the 
middle  ages  the  Lithuanians,  the  last  pagan  people  of  Europe,  were 
converted  to  Christianity  by  the  Poles  who  introduced  the  Bible 
and  western  civilization  into  their  country. 

The  Polish  people  at  that  time  had  reached  a  high  state  of 
intellectual  development. 


In  1364,  the  first  Polish  University  had  already  been  founded 
at  Cracow.  It  was  the  eminent  forerunner  of  the  Universities  of 
Wilno,  Warsaw,  Lwow  and  Zamosc.  The  immortal  Copernicus  went 
forth  from  this  ancient  school.  The  XVI.  century,  that  was  the 
golden  age  of  Polish  culture,  gave  birth  to  illustrious  poets,  among 
whom  Sarbiewski  was  crowned  by  the  Pope,  to  eminent  savants 
and  to  profoimd  political  writers.  There  was  an  efflorescence  of 
great  works  brought  forth  from  the  new  ideas  of  religious  toleration, 
of  the  fraternity  of  peoples  and  respect  for  individual  rights. 

There  was  a  new  institution  created  at  Warsaw,  toward  the 
middle  of  the  eighteenth  century,  called  the  "Commission  of  Educa- 
tion."   This  was  the  first  ministry  of  public  education  in  Europe. 

The  reforms  that  this  Commission  introduced  were  based  on 
principles  far  in  advance  of  many  of  the  ideas  prevalent  at  that  time. 

A  complicated  political  organization  was  created  in  Poland 
during  that  long  period  of  progress.  It  was  based  upon  lofty  and 
daring  historical  conceptions  and  had  peculiar  characteristics.  This 
organization  more  than  all  else  has  left  a  stamp  of  individuality  on 
the  past  of  Poland. 

"^^     It  is  hardly  a  century  since  the  Polish  people,  once  so  brilliant 
and  powerful,  were  conquered  in  an  unequal  struggle. 

Conquered  yes,  but  not  subdued. 

Each  generation  in  its  turn,  since  the  fall  of  the  State,  drawing 
the  sword  of  its  ancestors — the  sword  of  the  Kosciuszko's  and  the 
Poniatowski's — has  striven  to  break  the  detested  bonds. 

In  the  life  and  death  struggle  for  liberty,  through  these  one 
hundred  and  twenty  years,  an  uninterrupted  series  of  revolutions 
have  drenched  Poland  in  blood.  In  its  soul  this  people  has  always 
remained  free,  it  has  never  accepted  the  outrages  committed  against 
it  nor  has  it  relinquished  the  rights  that  were  torn  from  it. 

Before  the  Chateau  of  Rapperswil,  that  shelters  the  Polish 
National  Museum — the  exiled  Museum — there  stands  a  memorial 
pillar,  bearing  the  dates  of  each  of  the  Polish  insurrections,  that 
proclaims  to  the  world  that  the  Polish  soul  can  never  be  crushed 
and  will  protest  forever  agtinst  this  yoke. 

Since  the  Confederation  of  Bar,  since  the  first  legions  of  Dom- 
browski  mustered  under  the  Eagles  of  Napoleon,  this  protest  has 
been  the  watchword,  the  call  transmitted  from  generation  to  gener- 
ation up  to  the  present  day,  when  the  world  war  has  again  brought 
forth  the  Legions  of  Poland. 

8 


V 

Although  deprived  of  independence  for  one  hundred  and 
twenty  years  Poland  is  still  a  homogenous  people  of  twenty-five 
million  souls,  having  a  real  historical  individuality.  This  people 
that  has  withstood  every  misfortune,  every  defeat,  is  filled  with  a 
passionate  desire  to  live.  Notwithstanding  the  unthinkable  oppres- 
sion from  which  even  the  homes  were  not  spared;  notwithstanding 
the  necessity  of  straining  every  force  to  protect  the  very  founda- 
tions of  existence ;  notwithstanding  the  terrible  state  of  her  bondage, 
Poland  has  given  proofs  of  her  capacity  to  develope,  of  her  vital 
power  in  all  domains  of  public  life.  She  has  competed  with  the 
world  in  her  intellectual  productivity;  in  the  poetic  inspiration  of 
the  genius  of  Mickiewicz ;  in  the  splendid  prose  of  Sienkiewicz ;  in 
the  magic  of  Chopin's  work,  that  reveals  the  sorrow  of  this  land; 
in  the  magnificence  of  the  plastic  art  of  Matejko  and  in  the  work 
of  her  savants  who  by  their  labors  and  by  their  researches  have  all 
contributed  to  lift  the  level  of  daily  life. 

A  people  having  such  a  great  and  noble  past,  with  such  vital 
power,  that  has  always  collaborated  in  work  for  the  good  of  civiliza- 
tion should  be  known  to  enlightened  Europe,  at  least,  well  enough 
not  to  feel  the  need  of  an  elementary  course  on  this  subject.  How- 
ever, this  need  is  felt, 

Poland,  this  living  and  real  member  of  the  European  family 
that  occupies,  by  the  number  of  its  population,  the  fifth  place  among 
the  peoples  of  Europe,  is  only  a  very  vague  impression  to  the  for- 
eigner, with  a  value  all  but  mystic  The  reaction  brought  about  by 
such  a  conception  is  sometimes  a  vague  sentiment  of  sympathy 
(remnant  of  the  time  of  the  "heyday  of  peoples")  but  more  often 
it  is  the  reflection  of  prejudices,  quite  as  vague,  created  by  false 
ideas  about  Poland,  ideas  spread  by  those  who  have  the  historic 
tragedy  of  this  country  on  their  conscience. 

It  is  from  this  more  than  suspicious  source,  that  all  along,  such 
tonents  of  slander  have  flowed,  tending  to  sully,  in  the  eyes  of  the 
world,  the  noble  and  resplendent  soul  of  the  martyr — Poland. 

The  historians,  especially  the  official  Russian  historians,  who 
felt  called  upon  to  justify  and  sanction  with  servility  the  deeds  that 
were  done,  heaped  an  avalanche  of  slander  on  the  past  of  Poland, 
that  little  by  little  found  its  way  through  Europe  and,  because  of  the 
total  ignorance  of  facts,  the  aim  of  this  continual  hawking  of  lies 
was  finally  accomplished.  The  historical  truth  of  a  series  of  com- 
mon facts  were  completely  distorted.     It  was  thus  that  the  belie i 


in  "Polish  anarchy"  was  spread  abroad,  as  well  as  that  despicable 
story  about  different  "oppressions"  practiced  in  Poland. 

What  were  the  facts? 

Let  us  leave  aside  the  far  off  history  of  the  middle  ages  and 
examine  more  closely  the  principal  characteristics  of  the  structure 
built  up  in  modem  times  and  that  was  called  the  "Polish  Republic." 


II. 

THE  CHARACTER  OF  SOCIAL  LIFE  IN  POLAND 

THE  DEVELOPMENT  OF  ABSOLUTISM  IN  EUROPE  AND  THE  EVOLUTION  OF 
FREEDOM  IN  POLAND— SOCIAL  AND  POLITICAL  LIBERTIES — THE  PEOPLE  AS 
A  SOURCE  OF  TOWER — THE  ORGANIZATION  OF  THE  STATE — THE  PRIN- 
CIPLES— THE    POLISH    DIET    AND    ITS    COMPETENCY — INTENSITY    OF    PUBLIC 

LIFE — THE  REPUBLIC 

At  the  close  of  the  XVIth  century  Europe  entered  the  period  of 
modem  absolutism.  The  idea  of  class  autonomy,  fruit  of  the  pre- 
ceding centuries,  died  out  little  by  little,  all  over  the  continent. 

The  former  State  Diets,  although  their  field  of  action  had  been 
greatly  restricted,  still  represented  the  social  element  in  power. 
Finally  defeated  after  a  long  period  of  desperate  struggle,  they  dis- 
appeared and  made  room  for  a  new  order  of  things.  Those  that 
remained  here  and  there,  simply  as  a  matter  of  form,  had  no  im- 
portance whatever.  They  passed  away  without  having  produced  a 
higher  form  of  organization. 

Already  in  the  XVIth  century  the  Kings  of  France  had  been 
called  "reges  serv^orum,"  kings  of  serfs,  instead  of  "reges  fran- 
corum,"  and  the  political  writers  who  sought  for  the  difference  be- 
tween the  "monarch"  and  the  "tyrant"  thought  they  had  found  it 
from  the  fact  that  the  "tyrant  shuns  all  contact  with  his  subjects 
and  fears  the  Diets  (of  whatever  kind  they  may  be)  as  a  bat  fears 
the  light." 

The  new  course  of  history  tended  more  and  more  to  group  all 
the  elements  of  government  around  the  purple  monarchy,  so  that  in 
one  hand,  in  the  hand  of  the  King-man,  all  the  reins  of  power  might 
be  united,  so  that  this  man  might  be  able  to  say,  with  pride :  "I'Etat 
c'est  moi !"  In  the  XVIII.  century,  everywhere,  with  the  exception 
of  England  and  the  republics  of  Holland  and  Venice,  absolutism 
stretched  out  victoriously. 

10 


One  will,  having  no  responsibility,  obeying  no  law,  controlled 
peoples  and  States,  as  if  they  were  private  property.  Before  this 
blind  force  entire  nations  bowed  down.  Victorious  autocracy  re- 
duced to  nothing  the  part  that  the  people  had  taken  in  public  affairs 
and  killed  all  interest  in  questions  of  public  order. 

In  Poland  things  took  an  entirely  different  turn. 

The  organizations  of  Europe  and  of  the  Polish  Republic  evolved 
as  differently  as  two  streams  running  in  opposite  directions.  There, 
around  the  throne,  that  mounted  higher  and  higher,  was  formed  the 
humble  type  of  "narrow  minded  subject."  Here,  although  the 
power  passed  more  and  more  into  the  hands  of  the  people,  a  type  of 
free  citizen  was  developed,  who  described  his  relations  to  the  State 
by  this  proud  maxim :  "nil  de  nobis  sine  nobis." 

From  the  XVth  century  the  Poles  developed  their  political  and 
civic  liberties  with  remarkable  rapidity. 

By  the  "Czerwinsk  privilege"  (1422)  the  nobility  acquired  the 
inviolability  of  property.  From  that  time  the  King  could  not  con- 
fiscate private  property  without  legal  proceedings. 

In  1430  came  the  memorable  law  of  the  inviolability  of  the 
individual :  "neminem  captivabimus,  nisi  jure  victum."  This  law 
guaranteed  that  no  nobleman  could  be  arrested  without  a  legal  war- 
rant, except  he  be  taken  in  the  very  act. 

This  Polish  "habeas  corpus  act"  preceded  by  several  centuries 
the  judicial  conceptions  of  the  European  continent.  This  act,  that 
was  never  violated,  was  later  extended  to  the  middle  classes. 

The  "privilege  of  1588"  conferred  the  inviolability  of  the  home. 
This  act  stipulated  that  a  nobleman's  house  could  not  be  subjected 
to  a  perquisition  even  though  an  outlaw  were  harbored  in  it. 

Without  special  authorization  a  citizen  of  the  Republic  had  the 
right  to  found  societies  and  express  his  opinions  either  in  words  or 
writing.  Under  no  circumstances  could  he  be  molested  for  having  ex- 
pressed an  opinion  on  a  political  question. 

The  principles  that  are  today  called  constitutional ;  inviolability 
of  the  individual,  respect  for  private  property  and  the  home,  liberty 
of  association  and  religious  toleration, — principles  for  which,  in  the 
XIX.  century,  such  torrents  of  blood  were  shed  in  more  than  one 
country — were  realized  in  Poland,  in  the  XVth  and  XVIth  cen- 
turies, and  continued  to  be  as  long  as  the  Republic  existed,  while  in 
Europe  injustice  and  iniquity  ruled  and  the  people  were  exposed  to 
the  despotic  will  of  their  masters. 


II 


Parallel  with  the  individual  rights,  political  rights  developed. 
The  starting  point  of  the  latter  was  the  "Statute"  of  King*  Casimir 
Jagellon  (statute  of  Nieszawa,  1454),  according  to  which,  the  King 
agreed  never  to  declare  war,  without  the  consent  of  the  nobles 
united  in  provincial  Diets  (dietines).  From  that  time  on  the  nobles 
obtained  access  to  legislative  power.  The  principle,  that  the  people 
must  be  consulted  on  the  obligations  that  they  were  expected  to  ful- 
fill, grew  more  and  more  apparent,  became  the  corner  stone  of  the 
Polish  state  organization  and  the  germ  of  the  future  parliamentary- 
system. 

Towards  the  end  of  the  XVth  century  the  periodic  meetings  of 
the  nobles  and  Crown  Counsellors  were  gradually  transformed  into 
"general  Diets"  that,  henceforth,  became  an  important  and  enduring 
factor  in  public  life.    The  Diet  was  definitely  organized  in  1493. 

In  1505  the  Diet  of  Radom  secured  a  legal  basis  for  the  organiza- 
tion and  a  new  article  was  added  to  the  fundamental  statute :  "nihil 
novi  constitui  debeat  per  nos,  sine  communi  consensu  conciliarorum 
et  nuntiorum  terrestium"  (no  decision  shall  be  taken  without  the 
consent  of  the  Council  and  the  rural  Deputies).  This  statute 
strengthened  and  developed  the  principle  that  all  power  must  come 
from  the  people  and  that  the  people  must  obey  the  laws  made  by 
themselves  through  their  representatives. 

The  general  Diet  constituted  the  legislative  power  of  Poland  and 
represented  the  entire  nation.  Like  the  English  parliament  it  was 
composed  of  two  chambers :  the  Senate  and  the  Chamber  of  Depu- 
ties. The  King  was  also  a  member,  because  of  his  legal  status  that 
conferred  upon  him  the  rank  of  "Estate". 

Such  a  fusion  of  Royal  power  and  national  representation 
existed  only  in  England,  until  recent  times. 

To  enact  a  law  the  three  factors  or  "executive  Estates"  (King, 
Senate  and  Nobility),  were  indispensable.  Yet  from  the  point  of 
view  of  public  law,  neither  the  Senate  nor  the  Chamber  of  Deputies 
alone,  represented  exclusively  one  of  the  estates  because  both 
churchmen  and  laymen  sat  in  the  Senate,  while  the  Chamber  of 
Deputies  was  made  up  (up  to  a  certain  time,  at  least)  of  members 
of  the  nobility  and  middle  class. 

The  nobility  was  represented  by  deputies  elected  at  electoral 
assemblies  of  "Dietines"  while  the  urban  deputies  or  "nonces"  were 
elected  by  the  middle  classes. 

The  Diet  decided  upon  the  political  life  of  the  State:  elaborated 
and   proclaimed  the   laws   and   fixed   the  taxes,   had    jurisdiction, 


12 


both  penal  and  civil,  over  exceptionally  important  affairs,  had  control 
of  the  King  and  Government,  had  supervision  of  the  administration 
and  finances,  had  the  direction  of  foreign  policies,  the  right  to  make 
treaties  and  alliances  and,  it  was  the  Diet  that  decided  on  peace 
and  war.  The  Polish  Kings  could  not  declare  war  for  personal 
or  dynastic  reasons.  This  supreme  right  belonged  only  to  the  people, 
and  the  people  reserved  the  right  to  decide  whether  war  or  peace 
responded  to  their  interests. 

Few  European  parliaments  have  enjoyed  such  extraordinary 
privileges. 

The  meetings  of  the  Dietes  were  always  public.  When  the 
deliberations  were  finished  the  deputies  were  obliged  to  render  ac- 
counts of  the  proceedings  (to  their  constituents,  at  special  assemblies 
called  "statement  dietines." 

Under  such  conditions  political  life  developed  with  extraor- 
dinary intensity.  The  townspeople  (middle  class)  however,  soon 
left  active  politics  using  their  franchise  only  to  declare  their  nominal 
rights,  while  the  landowners  (nobility)  took  an  ever  increasing  part 
in  the  political  life  of  the  country. 

This  political  culture,  that  continued  to  develop  without  inter- 
ruption for  a  considerable  lapse  of  time,  left  its  stamp  on  the  Polish 
nobility.  They  were  completely  absorbed  by  the  conduct  of  public 
affairs,  that  formed,  as  in  the  ancient  Hellenic  Republics,  a  favorite 
and  honorable  occupation  and  as  in  ancient  Greece,  had  the  power 
to  impassion  the  minds  of  men.  Everywhere,  at  the  ordinary  diets 
held  every  two  years,  at  the  special  assemblies,  at  the  innumerable 
provincial  dietines,  the  elective  tribunals,  etc.,  etc.,  the  nobles  were 
occupied,  either  with  local  questions  or  affairs  concerning  the  State. 

This  political  development  reached  its  maximum  at  the  end 
of  the  XVIth  century  and  remained  as  it  was  through  the  two  fol- 
lowing centuries,  while  almost  the  whole  of  continental  Europe  was 
under  the  yoke  of  despotism. 

Since  all  of  the  nobility,  composed  of  very  numerous  and  very 
different  elements,  took  part  in  the  intensive  political  life,  and  since 
the  throne  had  long  ceased  to  be  hereditary,  Poland  finally  took  on 
the  characteristics  of  an  aristocratic  organization — aristocratic  from 
the  condition  of  her  subjects  actively  interested  in  politics — but 
democratic  and  republican  in  practice. 


-o- 


13 


III. 

THE  PEOPLE  AND  THE  KING. 

THE  FREE  ELECTION  OF  THE  KING  AND  THE  RIGHT  OF  ANY  CITIZEN  TO  THE 
CROWN — RELATIONSHIP  BETWEEN  CITIZEN  AND  MONARCH — THE  "ARTI- 
CLES OF  HENRY  OF  VALOIS" — THE  KING-PRESIDENT — RIGHT  TO  REFUSE 
OBEDIENCE — THE  KING  FOR  THE  PEOPLE  AND  NOT  THE  PEOPLE  FOR  THE  KING 

•  From  the  close  of  the  middle  ages,  right  up  to  the  fall  of  the 
Republic,  Poland  recognized  the  principle  that  free  men  could  not 
submit  to  authority  that  did  not  come  from  themselves.  So,  the 
King  was  not  imposed  on  Poland  by  the  blind  chance  of  birth;  he 
was  freely  chosen  by  an  assembly  in  which  every  citizen,  enjoying 
full  right,  could  participate. 

Besides  the  Senators  and  Deputies  all  the  nobility  of  Poland, 
from  the  greatest  magnate  to  the  least  important  country  squire, 
had  the  right  to  go  to  the  "Diets  of  Convocation"  and  there,  vote 
in  person  for  the  King.  These  elections  were  based  on  the  principle 
of  universal  suffrage. 

It  is  true  that  the  nobility  alone  took  part  in  the  elections,  but, 
being  numerous,  they  really  represented  the  will  of  the  people. 

The  eligibility  of  the  King,  being  the  capital  principle  of  Civic 
liberty,  was  watched  over  by  this  class  with  jealous  care  for  cen- 
turies. But,  threatened  by  the  neighboring  autocratic  powers,  the 
Poles  were  finally  forced  to  adopt  hereditary  monarchy.  And  yet, 
of  their  own  free  will,  the  Polish  people,  during  the  long  period  of 
elective  kings,  chose  seven  successively  from  the  Jagellon  dynasty 
and  later  on  three  were  chosen  from  the  Wasa  family  and  two  from 
the  Wettins.  This  fact  simply  proves  that  the  people  could  and 
would  conciliate  their  own  political  interests  with  those  of  the  State. 

The  relationship  existing  between  the  people  and  their  King 
showed  clearly  the  character  of  the  public  institutions  in  Poland. 
The  Polish  gentleman  justly  appreciated  the  dignity  of  the  King  as 
a  man  and  a  citizen.  "He  respected  the  King,"  says  the  historian 
Kalinka,  "as  a  moral  authority,  as  a  chief  of  the  federation  of  nobles 
to  v/hich  he  himself  belonged.  But  he  had  no  fear  of  the  King, 
for  he  never  anticipated  that  his  Sovereign  would  harm  him  in  any 
way.  It  pleased  him  to  be  in  the  good  graces  of  his  King,  but  he  could 
easily  do  without  it,  if  necessary.  What  he  was  he  did  not  owe  to 
the  King  but  to  himself."    In  Poland  there  was  not  the  shadow  of 

14 


that  byzantism  and  servility  in  intercourse  with  the  monarch  that 
characterized  similar  relations  in  Europe  at  the  same  time  or  even 
later. 

The  Pole  was  proud  in  the  knowledge  that  he  was  not  only  an 
"elector"  of  Kings  but  that  he  had  the  right  to  the  throne  himself, 
and,  in  fact,  the  road  to  the  throne  was  open  to  any  member  of  the 
great  community  of  nobles,  if  through  his  talents  and  merits  he 
should  be  deemed  worthy. 

Four  Kings  were  thus  chosen  in  Poland  and  two  of  them, 
Sobieski  and  Leszczynski,  are  counted  among  her  most  excellent 
sovereigns. 

Relationship  with  the  King  was  in  reality  fixed  by  the  consti- 
tution of  the  Republic.  This  constitution,  to  guard  against  the 
tyranny  of  one  will,  placed  all  power  in  the  Diet  and  gave  to  each 
citizen  the  right  to  participate  indirectly  in  the  Government,  and  to 
the  people,  the  responsibility  of  public  affairs. 

Royal  power,  as  we  have  seen,  was  limited  by  the  great  author- 
ity of  the  Diet.  From  1573  the  Constitutional  Statutes  (called  the 
"Articles  of  Henry")  were  presented  to  the  King  by  the  Elective 
Diet,  upon  his  accession  to  the  throne  and  also  the  "pacta  conventa" 
that  defined  his  royal  power  and  drew  the  line  so  clearly  between 
the  rights  of  the  King  and  those  of  the  people.  It  was  only  after 
he  had  sworn  allegiance  to  the  Constitution,  acknowledged  the  su- 
preme power  of  the  Diet  and  confirmed  the  national  liberties  that 
the  Khvg  could  take  up  his  duties  as  first  citizen  of  the  State,  a 
citizen  who,  notwithstanding  the  Royal  title  with  which  he  was  in- 
vested, was  nothing  more  than  the  President  of  the  Republic. 

The  manner  in  which  the  people  guaranteed  themselves  against 
any  autocratic  attempt  of  the  King  was  both  simple  and  honorable. 
"If  the  King  attacks  the  rights,  the  liberties,  the  articles  and  the 
pacts  or  if  he  does  not  hold  to  his  engagements,"  stipulates  the  fun- 
damental statute,  "the  citizens  will  be  freed  from  their  oaths  of 
fidelity  and  obedience  to  the  King." 

This  naturally,  did  not  mean  "errors  due  to  human  imperfec- 
tions but  to  bad  will  and  premeditated  attacks  against  the  liberty 
of  the  people"  specified  the  Diet  of  1576,  "to  the  end  that  neither 
the  King  nor  the  citizens  shall  be  in  doubt  on  the  will  of  the  Repub- 
lic." The  law  of  1609  "de  non  praestanda  oboedientia"  prescribed 
the  exact  preliminary  procedure  to  be  followed  before  being  able 
to  "definitely  refuse  obedience"  to  the  King.  For  an  act  of  such 
importance  could  not  be  carried  out  unadvisedly.    If  the  King  pub- 

15 


licly  and  in  an  undeniable  manner  attacked  the  laws  to  which  he  had 
sworn  allegiance,  he  was  to  be  given  notice  three  different  times  by 
the  Senate,  then  exhorted  by  the  Archbishop.  If  he  still  persisted 
in  his  intent  to  harm  the  State,  the  Diet  could  use  its  right  and  an- 
nul the  agreement.  Thus,  the  loyalty  of  the  people  to  their  mon- 
arch was  not  unconditional.  But  as  a  remedy,  to  avoid  abuse,  the 
Polish  law  prescribed  very  severe  punishments  for  anyone  who 
created  trouble  under  pretext  that  the  King  "premeditated  the  de- 
struction of  the  Republic". 

The  article  "de  non  prgestanda  oboedientia"  shows  to  what  an 
extent  the  law  was  venerated  in  Poland.  It  was  set  even  above  the 
King  himself.  It  is  to  be  remarked  however,  that  these  peculiar 
conditions  did  not  hinder  a  King,  with  the  strong  moral  cast  of 
character  of  a  Stephen  Batory,  to  govern  the  people  with  an  iron 
hand  and  inflict  the  death  penalty  on  the  most  powerful  magnates 
who  were  guilty  of  violating  the  law.  The  people  seeing  that  he 
did  not  permit  anyone  to  transgress  the  laws  that  he  himself  observed 
so  scrupulously,  upheld  the  King  in  such  cases. 

Such  a  bearing  between  King  and  citizens  (not  subjects)  is 
hardly  known  in  history.  The  Polish  people  settled  their  accounts 
with  their  King  clearly  and  honestly,  as  free  men.  In  all  just  de- 
mands the  Government  was  answerable  to  the  people  and  they, 
strong  in  this  right,  could  call  upon  the  Government  to  respect  the 
law.  The  article  "de  non  praestanda  oboedientia"  thus  summed  up 
the  procedure  for  the  annulment  of  the  agreement  between  the  King 
and  the  people. 

"If  thou  wouldst  grow  old  among  us"  declared  the  people  to 
their  sovereign,  "respect  our  laws."  Otherwise  he  would  be  obliged 
to  return  to  his  former  condition  but  always  surrounded  by  the  re- 
spect due  to  his  dignity  and  without  drawing  upon  himself  any  kind 
of  danger.  The  mask  of  the  hired  assassin  never  rose  up  before 
him  in  the  dark  shadow  of  night ;  poinard  nor  poison  never  threatened 
him.  During  the  eight  centuries  of  the  existence  of  the  Polish  State, 
there  was  never  a  regicide.  From  the  time  of  the  very  beginning  of 
the  power  of  the  Diet,  the  nobles  never  ceased  to  oppose!  the  intro- 
duction of  the  "dominum  absolutum,"  that  they  saw  spreading  over 
Europe,  and  they  always  tried  to  prevent  royalty  from  infringing 
upon  their  rights  to  the  detriment  of  civic  liberty.  But  never  did 
the  people  drag  one  of  their  kings  to  the  scaffold,  nor  never  did  one 
of  their  kings  fall  by  the  hand  of  an  assassin.  The  Polish  King 
never  had  to  surround  himself  with  guards  but  mixed  fearlessly 

i6 


and  freely  with  the  people.  Upon  one  occasion  the  heroic  defender 
of  Vienna,  the  popular  Sobieski,  did  not  hesitate  to  join  in  the 
wedding  festivities  of  a  humble  blacksmith. 

The  sincere  and  knightly  attitude  that  was  characteristic  of  the 
Polish  people  in  regard  to  their  sovereigns  grew  out  of  the  principle 
adopted  in  Poland,  that  "the  King  belonged  to  the  people  and  not  the 
people  to  the  King".  At  this  same  epoch,  the  other  peoples  of  Europe 
were  becoming  more  and  more  subjected,  more  and  more  the  property 
of  their  masters. 


IV. 

THE  POLISH  NOBILITY. 

THE     NUMBER — DIFFERENT    RANKS  :      THE     MAGNATES,    THE    "rEDS /'    THE 

"mass" — PECULIAR   CHARACTERISTICS — EQUALITY   OF   THE   NOBLES   AMONG 

THEMSELVES — ENNOBLEMENT 

To  appreciate  the  historic  past  of  Poland  at  its  just  value,  one 
must  remember  that  the  nobility  of  this  country  was  not  formed  of  a 
very  small  proportion  of  the  population  as  in  other  countries  but,  on 
the  contrary,  was  made  up  of  a  very  considerable  part  of  it,  more 
than  in  any  other  of  the  European  countries.  This  high  proportion  of 
nobles  was  the  specific  characteristic  of  the  organization  of  the  Polish 
State. 

While  France,  at  the  end  of  the  eighteenth  century,  had  only 
140,000  nobles  in  a  population  of  twenty  million  inhabitants  (not 
even  1.5%),  the  Polish  Republic  at  the  same  time  could  count  one 
million  (some  historians  say  a  million  and  a  half)  for  every  ten  mil- 
lion inhabitants,  that  is  to  say  13%  of  the  entire  population.  This 
high  figure  will  not  astonish  us  if  we  look  for  a  moment  at  the  struc- 
ture of  the  Polish  nobility. 

Greatly  differentiated,  the  categories  of  this  nobility  correspond, 
in  a  way,  to  a  complete  social  organization.  This  "body",  uniform  in 
appearance,  included  three  groups  that  were  entirely  different  one 
from  the  other. 

At  the  top  were  the  great  lordly  families,  the  magnates,  power- 
ful proprietors,  whose  vast  estates  were  larger  than  many  of  the 
small  principalities  of  western  Europe. 

17 


The  rich  landowners  followed,  a  kind  of  English  gentry,  that 
was  divided  into  two  categories :  one  was  composed  of  noblemen  of 
old  families  called  the  "Crimsons"  (Karmazyni)  or  "Purple  Bearers", 
the  other  of  families  with  smaller  fortunes  and  of  more  recent 
nobility. 

Toward  the  bottom  of  the  ladder  were  the  "small  nobility",  poor 
and  very  thickly  settled,  called  "provincials"  or  "greys"  (szara- 
czkowi).  They  owned,  at  most,  a  few  acres  of  land  and,  not  owning 
serfs,  they  were  obliged  to  cultivate  the  land  themselves.  Econom- 
ically these  nobles  differed  little  from  the  peasants  and  were  even 
inferior  to  some  of  them — the  peasants  on  the  Royal  domains,  for 
example,  who  were  not  subject  to  forced  labor. 

At  a  still  lower  round  of  the  ladder  there  were  a  multitude  of 
gentlemen  without  any  property  whatever,  who  were  simply  called 
"Komomicy".  These  "Komornicy"  worked  in  different  capac- 
ities for  the  great  landlords,  attached  themselves  to  the  rich  mag- 
nates or  sometimes  slipped  into  the  cities,  there  to  follow  a  trade  or 
enter  commerce. 

The  majority  of  the  Polish  nobility  was  made  up  of  these  work- 
ing nobles,  either  with  or  without  land.  The  creation  of  this  nobility 
was  due  to  different  causes.  Sometimes  it  happened  that  the  entire 
dependent  population  of  a  village  was  ennobled,  but  more  often  they 
were  the  descendants  of  old  and  rich  families  who  had  become  im- 
poverished by  the  successive  divisions  of  the  land,  through  the  right 
of  descendants.  There  were  also  in  this  class,  nobles  who  had  been 
ruined  by  war  or  other  calamities.  As  early  as  the  XVI.  century 
there  were  to  be  found  in  different  parts  of  the  Republic,  in  Masovia, 
in  Lithuania,  in  Pomerania  and  in  Podlasie,  etc.  etc.,  a  numerous 
class  officially  called  nobiles  pauperes,  the  poor  nobility,  who  little  by 
little  became  assimilated  with  the  peasants  and  who  in  the  end,  lost 
even  their  civil  rights;  villages  and  even  entire  districts  were  occu- 
pied by  these  pauperes  nobiles.  Even  while  tilling  their  bit  of  soil, 
these  poor  devils  of  noblemen,  never  left  off  the  sword  that  was  the 
sign  of  their  high  birth  and  proudly  repeated  to  themselves  the  pro- 
verb, that  so  well  characterized  them :  "with  bare  feet  but  with  sword 
at  side". 

The  fact  that  the  Polish  nobility  was  not  a  uniform  class,  but 
divided  into  many  differnt  groups,  clearly  differentiated  it  from  west- 
ern nobility.  Also,  the  fact  that  this  nobility  formed  such  an  im- 
mense part  of  the  population  was,  as  well,  a  phenomenon  without 
analogy.    So  it  was  really  not  without  some  reasons,  that  the  nobles, 

i8 


conscious  of  their  privileged  position  and  of  their  number,  consid- 
ered themselves  not  only  a  noble  "class"  but  also  a  "people"  of  nobles. 

All  these  different  ranks  of  nobility — where  the  difference  in 
fortune  created  such  gulfs — were  in  reality  equals.  This  "equality 
of  all  nobles"  so  proudly  acknowledged,  was  one  of  the  most 
remarkable  traits  of  public  life  in  Poland.  From  Radziwill,  who 
could  make  Lithuania  tremble, — down  to  the  poorest  wretch  of 
the  "grey  nobility",  all  felt  themselves  to  be  equal,  all  being  nobles. 
The  most  powerful  Lord,  who  considered  himseslf  the  equal  of  the 
King,  would  not  think  of  addressing  the  most  humble  nobleman, 
without  calling  him  "brother".  The  people  have  aptly  expressed 
this  in  a  favorite  proverb,  "the  nobleman  within  his  gates  is  the 
equal  of  the  voivode". 

In  fact,  before  the  law,  save  for  a  few  insignificant  exceptions, 
no  difference  existed  between  the  several  ranks  of  nobility.  Their 
legal  status  toward  the  State  was  identical.  The  way  into  public 
affairs,  honors  and  to  the  most  exalted  positions,  not  even  excepting 
royalty,  were  open  to  every  noble.  The  Poniatowski  family  is  a 
striking  example  of  this.  The  grandfather  was  a  modest  country 
squire ;  the  son  an  eminent  senator  of  the  Republic ;  the  grandson  a 
King  of  Poland. 

Any  attempt  to  obtain  titles  of  Baron,  Count  or  Prince  was  abso- 
lutely prohibited  by  the  nobility  who  thus  safeguarded  their  equality. 
Each  generation  was  reminded  of  this  interdiction  by  many  new  laws 
and  edicts  enacted  by  the  Diet  that  were  inspired  by  the  principle  that 
there  could  be  no  greater  honor  than  to  be  a  citizen  of  the  Republic. 

The  Polish  King  had  no  right  to  bestow  titles  on  the  nobility  of 
the  country  but  could  only  grant  them  to  foreigners.  The  law  of 
1673  considered  "defamed  for  life"  any  Pole  who  would  accept  a 
title  from  a  foreign  monarch  and  thus  infringe  the  principle  of 
equality. 

The  spirit  of  this  "people  of  nobles"  was  republican  and  demo- 
cratic in  every  sense  of  the  word.  Proud  of  their  liberties  that  were 
not  equaled  on  the  continent,  although  sometimes  allowing  them- 
selves to  be  carried  away,  this  people  was  not  exclusive  and,  except 
in  the  XVIL  century  when  society  became  depraved  by  the  Jesuits, 
they  made  no  objections  to  the  encroachments  of  new  elements  com- 
ing from  other  ranks  of  the  population.  It  is  a  well  known  fact  that 
whole  villages  were  ennobled  as  the  reward  for  military  worth.  Even 
the  thirty  thousand  Tartars  settled  in  Lithuania  were  given  the  lib- 


19 


cities  of  nobility  and  admitted  to  military  service  while  allowed  to 
keep  their  Mohammedan  religion. 

After  the  victory  of  "Wielkie  Luki"  the  Hetman  Zamoyski  be- 
stowed his  coat  of  arms  upon  the  greater  part  of  his  soldiers.  This 
example  was  followed  by  many  other  noblemen. 

At  the  time  of  Sigismund  August  it  was  obligatory  to  ennoble  a 
certain  number  of  the  middle  class.  The  professors  of  the  University 
of  Cracow  and  the  municipal  officials  of  the  principal  cities,  who 
were  of  plebeian  origin,  automatically  obtained  hereditary  coats  of 
arms.  It  was  characteristic  of  the  XVIII.  century,  that  even  the 
ennobling  of  Jews  was  allowed,  baptized  Frankists,  an  element  that 
was  scorned  and  despised  at  that  time,  to  the  greatest  degree. 

It  has  been  clearly  shown  that  public  life  was  not  carried  on  by 
a  handful  of  despotic  nobles,  in  possession  of  great  liberties  and 
exercising  a  decisive  influence  on  the  affairs  of  State,  but  by  a  great 
part  of  the  people,  a  mass  numbering  millions.  Two  hundred  thou- 
sand nobles  presented  themselves  at  the  electorial  urn.  The  signifi- 
cance of  this  figure  is  brought  out  by  the  fact  that  just  before  1848 
in  post-revolutionary  France,  the  rate  of  citizens  who  were  author- 
ized to  elect  their  representatives  was  less  than  it  had  been  three 
centuries  before  in  Poand. 


V. 

THE  UNIONS. 

INTERNAL  LIBERTIES,  THE  SOURCE  OF  THE  POWER  OF  THE  STATE— THE 
FORCE  OF  ATTRACTION— "the  FREE  WITH  THE  FREE  AND  EQUALS  WITH 
equals"— THE  UNIONS  WITH  PRUSSIA,  LIVONIA  AND  LITHUANIA— THE 
FOUNDATIONS  OF  THE  UNION  WITH  LITHUANIA — THE  PRINCIPLE  OF  POLISH 
AUTONOMY — STATE  PATRIOTISM — THE  LASTING  CHARACTER  OF  THE  UNIONS 

The  internal  organization,  based  on  largely  developed  liberties, 
that  so  amply  guaranteed  the  rights  and  the  independence  of  her  citi- 
zens, was  bound  to  exert  an  influence  on  the  surrounding  peoples,  and 
logically,  bring  about  a  greater  development  of  the  Polish  State. 

By  following  a  course  fundamentally  Polish,  not  to  be  found 
elsewhere,  by  means  of  Unions  with  the  neighboring  States,  Poland 
that  was  a  comparatively  small  State  at  the  time  of  the  Piast  kings, 
grew  larger  and  larger.  The  neighboring  peoples,  subject  to  the 
severity  of  autocracy  or  arbitrary  oligarchy,  were  attracted  by  the 

20 


regime  of  right  and  liberty  that  the  Polish  people  had  instituted  in 
their  country,  and  manifested  the  desire  to  unite  with  Poland. 

Through  two  centuries,  from  the  beginning  of  the  XV.  to  the 
end  of  the  XVI.  century,  there  was  a  long  line  of  these  unprecedented 
adhesions,  until  at  last  Poland  became  the  largest  State  in  Europe. 

This  is  one  of  the  most  remarkable  phenomena  in  history.  It 
was  not  to  brute  force  nor  to  the  sword  that  Poland  owed  these 
glorious  conquests.  It  was  to  her  moral  force  and  to  the  prestige  of 
her  laws.  It  was  her  liberties  that  drew  to  Poland  these  foreign  terri- 
tories and  cemented  these  unions  into  an  inseparable  whole,  that 
later  gave  proof  of  a  cohesion  rarely  seen  in  the  history  of  peoples. 
Poland  in  concluding  the  act  of  Union  with  Lithuania  laid  down  the 
principle,  immortal  in  its  simplicity :  "uniting  the  free  with  the  free 
and  equals  with  equals".  The  application  of  this  principle  brought 
about  remarkable  results.  Kutrzeba,  the  Polish  historian,  points 
out  with  justice,  that  the  Poland  of  the  XVI.  and  XVII.  centuries, 
running  counter  to  the  prevailing  theories — according  to  which  abso- 
lutism played  the  role  of  "cement"  in  State  organizations — had  been 
better  able  to  unify  the  State,  through  the  excessive  development  of 
democracy  and  its  preponderance  over  royal  power,  than  either 
Italy  or  Germany,  for  example,  with  their  despotic  governments. 

In  the  XVIII.  century  Germany  was  composed  of  250  small 
principalities.  Territorially,  Poland  formed  one  uniform  State. 
Brute  force  here  had  been  replaced  by  a  power  far  more  effective : 
the  power  of  love, — so  literal  was  this  that  the  first  union  with  Lith- 
uania was  followed  by  at  least  a  hundred  marriages  between  the  no- 
bility of  the  two  countries!  A  Union  of  love, — a  kind  of  mystic 
marriage  between  two  peoples — it  was  thus  that  they  called  the  ulti- 
mate union  between  Poland  and  Lithuania.  The  act  ratifying  the 
union  of  Horodlo,  1413,  began  with  this  characteristic  declaration: 

"He  shall  receive  no  grace  of  salvation  whom  love  does  not 

sustain It  is  love  that  creates  laws,  rules  nations,  builds  cities 

and  leads  the  republic  to  her  best  destinies,  perfects  all  virtues  of  the 

virtuous Therefore,  we  prelates,  knights  and  nobility  of  the 

Polish  crown  by  this  document  do  unite  our  homes  and  future  gen- 
erations with  the  knighthood  and  nobility  of  Lithuania." 

"It  is  a  union  without  parallel,"  said  Julian  Klaczko,  the  illus- 
trious Polish  historian,  "this  union  between  two  States  so  long  hos- 
tile one  to  the  other,  and  who,  although  different  in  race,  in  customs, 
in  language  and  in  religion,  finally  became  united  in  the  name  of 
Christianity,  of  liberty,  and  of  love  that  alone  creates  States".    It  is 

21 


the  first  time  in  history  that  a  great  power  was  founded  without  the 
loss  of  a  drop  of  blood. 

"The  Diet  of  Horodlo,"  declared  the  German  historian  Caro, 
"confirmed  a  union  of  peoples  without  precedent  in  the  history  of 
Europe." 

In  the  annals  of  Poland  there  are  many  such  achievements  re- 
corded. To  all  these  peoples,  to  all  these  States,  Poland  left  their 
oganizations,  their  language  and  their  religion. 

In  1454  the  Prussian  States, — where  the  cities  were  almost 
wholly  German  and  the  nobility  was  for  the  most  part  German  or 
Germanized, — declared  they  would  no  more  submit  to  the  arbitrary 
government  of  the  Teutonic  Knights  and  demanded  to  be  admitted 
into  Poland.  Twelve  years  later  the  union  of  Prussia  with  Poland 
took  place.  From  1466,  Prussian  Pomerania  and  the  r^on  of  Dan- 
zig formed  an  integral  part  of  the  Republic  but  at  the  same  time 
retained  their  own  internal  organizations. 

The  new  province  possessed  its  own  jurisdiction  called  "Prus- 
sian corrections",  also  a  Diet  and  treasury  with  a  Prussian  treasurer. 
Up  to  the  very  end  of  the  Republic  the  Prussian  deputies  when  af- 
fixing their  signatures  to  the  election  decrees  of  the  Kings  never 
failed  to  add  this  clause :  "Salvis  per  omnia  juribus  terrarum  Prus- 
sIcb".  In  Warmia,  a  district  situated  in  Prussia  where  the  Bishop  was 
also  Prince,  there  was  still  greater  legal  independence.  On  that  an- 
nexed ground,  German  not  only  continued  to  be  the  official  language 
of  the  municipalities  but  it  was  also  used  by  the  Royal  Chancellor  in 
his  relations  with  the  Prussian  cities  This  rule  was  still  observed 
two  hundred  years  later  by  King  Jan  Sobieski  who  was,  however, 
an  ardent  patriot. 

In  1525,  after  the  extinction  of  the  Piast  dynasty,  the  Duchy  of 
Mazovia  gave  up  its  independence  of  it  own  free  will  and  joined 
Poland.  Here  again  the  institutions  and  common  law,  known  as  the 
"Mazovian  exceptions"  were  retained  by  the  Mazovians  for  many 
years. 

In  1560  Livonia  sought  to  unite  with  Poland.  Threatened  by 
the  growing  power  of  Moscovy,  Livonia  that  was  governed  by  the 
"Knights  of  the  Sword"  could  have  had  assistance  from  Sweden  or 
Denmark,  countries  to  which  it  was  connected  by  race  and  religion. 
But  this  small,  ecclesiastical  State,  although  German  and  partly 
protestant,  preferred  to  join  Poland  knowing  full  well  that  it  was 
from  there  that  the  most  complete  autonomy  would  be  obtained. 
And  in  fact,  Livonia,  incorporated  into  Poland,  not  only  enjoyed  full 

22 


religious  freedom  but  was  also  allowed  to  retain  her  own  institutions 
and  tribunals  and,  for  a  certain  time,  her  Diet. 

Gradually,  without  any  pressure  on  the  part  of  the  Poles,  a  close 
union  was  formed  with  the  Polish  State  and  the  German  language 
that  had  been  in  use  among  the  higher  classes  of  Livonia  was  partly 
replaced  by  Polish. 

In  like  manner  to  these  three  unions  (Prussia,  Mazovia  and 
Livonia)  the  famous  act  of  the  Union  of  Lithuania  and  Poland  was 
a  work  of  the  greatest  importance  not  only  because  of  the  extent  of 
the  territory  involved  (Lithuania  being  almost  as  large  as  France), 
but  also  because  of  the  historical  value  of  such  an  act. 

This  work  was  accomplished  by  a  series  of  conventions,  extend- 
ing over  two  centuries.  Each  of  them  drew  the  people  closer  and 
closer  together.  Thus  this  union  was  the  result  of  a  long  evolution. 
There  are  three  principal  halting  places  that  draw  our  attention  in 
this  long  line  of  successive  unions.  The  first  of  these  occurred  in 
1386;  it  was  a  personal  union  through  the  accession  of  the  Lithu- 
anian Grand  Duke  Jagellon  to  the  Polish  throne  and  his  marriage 
with  the  Polish  Queen  Jadwiga.  In  1413  the  union  of  Horodlo  was 
concluded  when  the  two  peoples  promised  that  the  succession  of  the 
throne  should  always  be  settled  by  mutual  accord.  The  nobility  of 
the  Grand  Duchy  of  Lithuania  then  obtained  liberties  and  political 
rights  that  had  long  been  enjoyed  by  the  Polish  nobility. 

After  a  lapse  of  156  years  (during  that  time  the  two  peoples 
had  the  same  dynasty)  the  third,  last  and  real  union  was  concluded 
at  the  Constituant  Convention  at  Lublin,  in  1569.  The  citizens  of 
the  two  countries  from  that  time  on  enjoyed  equal  rights  and  privi- 
leges. Lithuania  was  elevated  to  the  same  level  as  Poland  and  ruled 
by  the  same  democratic  principles. 

The  fundamental  principle  of  the  Federation,  a  common  Par- 
liament and  King  for  the  two  countries,  was  definitely  adopted.   But 

each  State  retained  its  army,  cabinet,  treasury,  local  government, 
Civil  and  Criminal  law. 

Justice  was  rendered  in  the  Lithuanian  courts  by  a  special  code 
called  the  "Lithuanian  Statute."    It  was  stipulated  in  the  act  of  the 

Lublin  Federation  that  the  native  White  Ruthenian  should  be  the 
official  language.  How  strictly  and  conscientiously  the  articles  of 
Federation  were  observed  is  shown  by  the  fact  that  the  White 
Ruthenian  language  continued  to  be  obligatory  in  official  acts  long 
after  the  nobility  of  the  Grand  Duchy  of  Lithuania,  under  the  in- 
fluence of  Polish  culture,  had  ceased  to  employ  it.    Thus  the  official 

23 


life  of  the  White  Ruthenian  language  outlived  its  social  life  more 
than  a  century.  From  the  time  of  the  last  union  (1569)  the  rank  of 
the  two  States  was  the  same,  but  the  bonds  between  them  were  so 
close  that  the  inhabitants  of  the  Grand  Duchy  of  Lithuania  as  well 
as  of  Poland  considered  themselves  above  all  citizens  of  the  Republic. 

The  Federated  Poland  also  gave  autonomy  to  certain  ethno- 
graphical groups  not  having  a  given  territory.  Thus,  for  example, 
the  Armenians,  who  were  scattered  through  the  cities  of  southern 
Poland,  had  their  own  courts  and  laws,  "the  Armenian  Statute." 
This  statute,  ratified  by  the  Polish  Parliament,  settled  all  legal  mat- 
ters connected  with  the  affairs  of  this  commercial  people. 

For  centuries  the  Jews  had  a  perfectly  independent  social  organ- 
ization in  Poland.  The  Jewish  conventions  met  twice  a  year  both  in 
Lithuania  and  Poland.  These  conventions  were  composed  of  repre- 
sentatives of  religious  communities,  and  in  their  quality  of  "supreme 
court"  decided  different  questions  relative  to  Jewish  autonomy.  They 
were  authorized  to  distribute  the  taxes,  that  the  State  levied  in  bloc, 
among  the  Jewish  population.  The  Jews  also  had  their  own  courts. 
A  Jew  would  never  accuse  one  of  his  co-religionists  except  before 
a  court  composed  of  Rabbies.  It  was  only  when  a  Jew  accused  a 
Christian  or  vice-versa  that  the  affair  was  pleaded  before  the  general 
court. 

Thus,  even  the  rights  of  those  who  lived  here  and  there,  scat- 
tered about  in  different  cities  and  who  did  not  own  a  foot  of  land 
were  still  recognized  by  the  Republic. 

One  of  the  fundamental  traits  of  the  political  regime  of  Poland 
was  the  spirit  of  toleration  in  the  Constitution  toward  its  many  ethni- 
cal elements  who  differed  in  culture,  language  and  race.  Each  well 
established  ethnographical  group  enjoyed  to  the  full  the  right  to  live 
and  develop  without  hindrance. 

On  this  ground,  so  favorable  for  liberalism,  a  kind  of  State 
patriotism  developed  in  Poland,  that  was  quite  modem  in  type  and 
in  no  way  resembled  the  patriotism  of  other  countries.  The  citizen 
was  powerfully  attached  to  the  State  by  his  political  freedom  and 
bound  to  appreciate  this  "serene  Republic"  that  was  his  guarantee 
of  freedom. 

It  was  with  truth  indeed,  that  the  eminent  preacher  of  the  XVII, 
century,  Peter  Skarga,  could  say:  "Your  country  is  not  a  step- 
mother to  you,  but  a  real  mother ;  she  folds  you  in  her  arms  and  al- 
lows no  harm  to  come  to  you,  while  other  States  oppress  and  tyran- 
nize their  subjects." 

24 


The  Polish  nobleman,  co-guardian  of  his  country,  proud  of  his 
freedom  before  the  law,  pitied  his  western  neighbors,  who  scorned 
the  peoples  of  the  east,  while  they  themselves  were  subject  to  auto- 
cratic governments.  It  was  a  consciousness  of  this  remarkable  situ- 
ation, so  different  from  that  of  the  adjacent  peoples  that  awakened 
in  the  hearts  of  all  the  population  of  this  vast  Republic  a  perception 
of  their  solidity  and  of  their  union,  in  spite  of  the  differences  in 
race,  language  or  religion.  From  the  Baltic  to  the  Black  Sea,  in  the 
midst  of  all  these  complicated  ethnic  elements,  so  heterogeneous 
(some  elements  approached  Latin  civilization  and  others  Byzantine 
culture)  one  patriotic  sentiment  stood  out  clearly:  love  for  the  coun- 
try belonging  to  them  all ;  love  for  that  country  whose  strength  lay 
in  the  fact  that  the  active  political  class,  made  up  of  all  these  hetero- 
geneous elements,  enjoyed  entire  civic  freedom. 

Through  many  successive  generations  history  does  not  record 
any  attempt  to  break  up  this  splendid  union  of  States  and  Peoples 
brought  about  by  the  genius  of  the  Polish  people. 

The  Federation  of  Poland  and  Lithuania,  considering  its  po- 
litical stability  notwithstanding  the  diversity  of  its  different  elements, 
stands  alone  in  the  history  of  peoples.  The  union  of  Colmar  (1397) 
— enacted  between  the  Scandinavian  States — lasted  hardly  a  cen- 
tury. According  to  Dahlman,  the  Danish  historian,  the  termination 
came  because  the  union,  based  exclusively  on  principles  of  a  mate- 
rial order,  was  the  achievement  of  the  sovereigns  and  not  of  the  peo- 
ples. The  Polish  union  has  proved  the  imperishable  nature  of  its 
deep  foundation.  How  firmly  Poland  was  able  to  unite  the  peoples 
she  confederated  and  how  permanent  this  union  was  is  shown  by  the 
following  fact :  at  the  time  when  Poland  officially  ceased  to  exist  the 
legal  bonds  that  united  her  several  peoples  were  broken,  but  they, 
nevertheless,  continued  to  hold  with  her  as  before. 

The  Grand  Duchy  of  Lithuania,  the  largest  of  these  countries, 
has  for  more  than  one  hundred  and  twenty  years  been  a  part  of  the 
Russian  Empire,  yet  by  the  people  who  have  played  a  political  role, 
she  considers  herself  joined  to  Poland,  Every  effort  of  Russia  (she 
has  not  been  sparing  of  them)  to  kill  this  sentiment  has  been  fruit- 
less. No  pressure  has  been  able  to  make  the  class  that  took  part 
in  the  political  life  of  Poland  forget  the  past.  For  one  hundred  and 
twenty  years  Poland  has  been  seconded  by  the  Grand  Duchy  of 
Lithuania  in  her  struggles  for  independence.  At  the  time  of  the 
partitions  and  at  the  time  of  Kosciuszko's  insurrection,  Wilno  took 
up  arms.     In  1831  blood  flowed  for  the  common  cause  in  Lithuania 

25 


as  well  as  in  Poland.  In  1836  and  in  1838  when  Warsaw  was  be- 
numbed into  inaction  by  exhaustion,  Lithuania  arose  again,  and  this 
time  alone,  against  the  detested  Russian  yoke.  Thousands  of  Lithu- 
anian revolutionists  with  their  leaders,  Konarski,  Zawisza,  Wol- 
lowicz,  died  martyrs  for  the  restoration  of  the  Republic. 

A  year  before  the  insurrection  of  1863  the  two  peoples  met  at 
Horodlo  and  in  an  immense  procession,  without  parallel  in  the  annals 
of  nations,  renewed  in  this  memorable  spot,  the  pledges  of  their 
eternal  union.  It  is,  indeed,  impossible  to  separate  all  these  elements 
that  men  or  circumstances  have  long  ago  blended  into  an  indivisible 
whole.  It  was  Reytan,  a  son  of  Lithuania,  who  protested  in  the 
Parliament  of  Warsaw  with  such  tragic  despair  against  the  parti- 
tions of  Poland. 

The  man  whose  name  has  become  the  symbol  of  all  Poland's 
highest  aspirations,  he  who  took  the  oath  in  the  market  place  of 
Cracow  to  drive  out  the  invaders,  Thaddeus  Kosciuszko,  was  a 
Lithuanian  Pole.  Adam  Mickiewicz,  the  most  forceful  expression, 
the  most  eloquent  exponent  of  the  sorrows  and  desires  of  the  Polish 
soul,  poet  of  genius  whose  ashes  repose  in  the  Royal  tomb  on  the 
Wawel,  was  also  a  Lithuanian  Pole. 

The  descendants  of  those  who  in  the  long  ago  took  the  oath  of 
allegiance  to  the  one  common  Republic,  the  historic  families  of  Rad- 
ziwill,  Sapieha,  Czartoryski,  and  dozens,  hundreds,  thousands  of 
other  patriots  are  still  faithful  to  the  oath,  conscious  that  they  could 
never  be  other  than  one  body  and  soul  with  Poland. 

This  is  the  most  surprising  phenomenon!  The  spiritual  sur- 
vival of  a  union,  the  Polish-Lithuanian,  after  the  fall  of  the  states 
that  formed  it.  The  spirit  that  prompted  the  acts  of  141 3  and  1569 
lives  on  in  the  souls  of  the  two  peoples,  although  the  acts  are  hidden 
away  in  some  museum  or  library,  although  they  are  worthless  and 
their  executive  power  gone. 

Such  has  been  the  resisting  power  of  the  judicious  achievement 
of  a  Republic  that  united  "the  free  with  the  free  and  equals  with 
equals." 


26 


VI. 

LIBERTIES  AS  A  PREROGATIVE  OF  ONE  LARGE  CLASS 

OF  PEOPLE. 

A  TRUE  VALUATION  OF  THE  LIBERTIES. — THE  MIDDLE  CLASS. — POLITICAL 
RIGHTS. — THE  MUNICIPAL  AUTONOMY  IN  POLAND. — THE  SITUATION  OF 
THE  PEASANTS  IN  POLAND  AND  IN  EUROPE,  LEGAL  AND  DE  FACTO. — REFORMS 
OF  THE  XVIII.  CENTURY. — THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF  THE  PEOPLE. — CONSTITU- 
TION  OF   THE    UNITED    STATES    AND    SLAVERY. 

The  organization  created  by  the  Polish  nobility  was  a  model 
free  State.  But  the  official  historians,  contaminated  by  doctrinism, 
or  even  openly  working  for  more  or  less  suspicious  interests,  have 
affirmed  over  and  over  again  that  all  this  was  of  no  value  whatsoever, 
that  Poland  was  a  paradise  for  the  governing  class  only,  while  the 
rest  of  the  population  lived  under  wretched  conditions;  that  the 
peasants  were  oppressed  and  the  middle  class  deprived  of  rights. 
To  hear  these  crushing  accusations  denouncing  this  unequal  divi- 
sion of  rights,  one  might  have  thought  that  in  Europe  what  were 
known  as  the  lower  classes,  slept  on  beds  of  roses  while  in  Poland 
they  were  oppressed  by  a  regime  of  misery  and  servitude. 

No!  Every  elementary  book  on  history  we  take  up  will  show 
that  at  that  epoch  the  peasant  was  everywliere  oppressed;  that 
the  middle  classes  were  everywh-ere  deprived  of  rights.  During 
the  last  half  of  the  XVI.  century  the  agricultural  population  of 
Europe  became  more  and  more  enslaved  and  the  oppression  grew 
to  such  an  extent  that  the  question  was  raised  of  which  had  the  most 
enviable  fate  "the  game  that  was  carefully  looked  after  and  hunted 
but  a  short  time  or  the  subject  who  was  never  looked  after  and  hunted 
all  the  time  ?"* 

The  middle  class  was  also  on  the  decline.  They  not  only  lost 
their  civil  rights  but  even  the  perquisites  of  their  economic  develop- 
ment In  the  XVI.  century,  the  nobleman  in  Germany — just  as  in 
Poland — in  importing  or  exporting  his  agricultural  products  did 
not  pay  duty.  The  nobility,  misusing  this  privilege,  caused  great 
harm  to  the  industrial  and  commercial  interests  of  the  country  by 
laying  all  the  burden  of  the  taxes  on  one  class.  Now,  this  phenome- 
non is  generally  admitted  everywhere  to  have  been  an  inevitable 
consequence  of  the  conditions  of  historical  development 

*  Jansen,  Geschichte  des  deutschen  Volkes :  "Was  es  besser  habe.  das  lang 
gehegte  und  kurz  gehetzte  Wild,  oder  der  stets  gehetzte  und  nie  gepflegte 
Unterthan." 

27 


No  one  would  ever  think  of  judging  this  phenomenon  according 
to  contemporary  criterions.  But  for  Poland  there  has  been  a  singu- 
lar exception  made.  The  situation  of  the  lower  classes  in  the  Poland 
of  long  ago  is  not  judged  by  the  ideas  of  that  time  but  by  the  stand- 
ards of  the  XIX.  and  XX.  centuries.  It  then  becomes  very  easy  to 
anathematize  the  extraordinary  exclusiveness  of  the  nobility  who 
so  jealously  safeguarded  political  rights  from  the  other  classes. 
With  such  sophistry  we  might  be  induced  to  regard  Newton  or 
Copernicus  as  dunces  because  they  did  not  understand  the  phe- 
nomena that  are  evident  to  every  school  boy  today. 

Although  the  proper  criterion  of  the  political  organization  of 
Poland  would  be  to  compare  it  with  thoughts  and  ideas  prevalent 
at  the  time  under  consideration,  still  let  us  see  if  according  to  our 
present  day  notions  the  condition  of  the  peasants,  the  middle  classes 
and  even  the  nobility  in  Poland  was  not  better  than  in  the  neighbor- 
ing States. 

Although  their  social  position  had  deteriorated,  because  of  the 
privileges  granted  to  the  nobles  and  notwithstanding  the  fact  that 
they  had  lost  the  greater  part  of  the  liberties  acquired  during  the 
middle  ages,  still  the  middle  class  was  not  wholly  deprived  of  rights, 
even  political. 

In  the  XVI.  century  the  middle  class  of  the  Royal  cities  not 
only  exercised  judicial  functions  but  had  access  to  high  dignities  as 
well,  and  noblemen  did  not  hesitate  to  call  them  "brothers".*  We 
find  in  no  place  in  the  Polish  Constitution  a  ruling  that  forbids  the 
middle  class  from  taking  part  in  the  Diet.  In  1573  the  "general 
Confederation"  of  Warsaw  said:  "We,  the  ecclesiastical  and  lay 
councillors  of  the  Crown,  all  the  nobility  and  other  estates  of  the 

Republic  one  and   indivisible" The   expression   "other  estates" 

has  reference  to  the  cities. 

The  principal  cities,  through  their  nonces,  took  part  in  all  general 
assemblies  or  "Confederations",  in  all  the  Elective  and  Convocation 
Diets  after  1573.  Such  cities  as:  Cracow,  Vilna,  Lemberg,  Posen, 
Warsaw,  Lublin,  Kamieniec,  Dantzig,  Thoren  and  Elbing  had  the 
right  to  take  an  active  part  in  the  important  act  of  electing  the  king : 
this  right  was  exercised  until  the  end.  City  representatives  attended 
the  Diet  of  1668  to  sign  the  abdication  of  John  Casimir.  In  1733 
they  ratified  the  "pacta  conventa".  These  two  acts  took  place 
during  the  time  of  the  greatest  development  of  absolutism  among  the 


*  Lozinski :  "The  patricians  and  the  bourgeoisie  of  Lemberg  in  the  XVI. 
and  the  XVII.  centuries". 

28 


nobility  and  is  a  proof,  as  Grabiec,  one  of  our  historical  writers,  has 
observed,  that  it  was  above  all,  the  indifference  and  inadaptability  of 
the  middle  class  that  kept  them  from  availing  themselves  of  their 
civic  rights. 

Moreover,  the  spirit  of  caste  that  showed  itself  in  the  common 
law  of  Poland  may  be  considered  as  a  trait  of  degeneration. 

During  the  XVII.  and  XVIII.  centuries,  that  is  at  the  period 
of  the  overlordship  of  the  nobility,  the  number  of  cities  doubled 
whose  municipalities  acquired  the  title  of  "nobiles"  instead  of  the 
older  "spectabiles  et  famati".  The  municipalities  thus  ennobled,  on 
the  ground  of  public  organisms,  became  from  that  time  on  "legal 
persons"  with  rights  equal  to  those  of  the  nobility. 

While  in  other  countries  the  middle  classes  were  unable  to 
acquire  land  (until  1807  in  Prussia),  in  Poland  the  inhabitants  of  all 
the  large  cities — Cracow,  Lemberg,  etc., — had  always  enjoyed  this 
right.  As,  on  the  other  hand,  it  was  comparatively  easy  to  acquire 
the  rights  of  townsmen,  the  right  to  own  land  had  practically  never 
been  forbidden. 

The  difference  that  existed,  is  still  more  clearly  shown  in  another 
field  fully  as  important,  that  of  city  autonomy. 

In  the  XVII.  and  XVIII.  centuries  the  old  city  autonomies  in 
many  countries  were  either  greatly  limited  or  else  rendered  illusory 
as  all  the  councillors  and  municipal  employees  were  appointed  by 
the  monarch. 

In  Poland  on  the  contrary,  the  municipal  councillors  were  placed 
under  the  supervision  of  the  royal  "starosta"  (Elder),  but  the 
internal  organization  of  the  councils  was  left  intact.  And,  while  else- 
where the  legal  and  police  service  was  more  or  less  completely  under 
royal  control,  these  offices  were  always  autonomous  in  Poland. 

Finally,  full  autonomy,  based  on  new  principles  was  granted  to 
the  cities  by  the  Constitution  of  May  3rd,  1791.  It  is  thus  that  two 
totally  dfferent  systems  of  government:  that  of  centralization  level- 
ing in  an  autocratic  sense  almost  the  whole  of  Europe,  and  the 
Polish  self  government,  so  full  of  liberalism  and  exuberance,  cast 
here  their  shadows  and  reflections. 

Let  us  now  examine  the  peasant  class,  the  class  that  forms  the 
greater  part  of  the  population. 

At  the  time  of  the  greatest  extension  of  the  political  rights  of 
the  nobles,  the  Polish  peasant — who  during  centuries  had  been  free, 
subject  only  to  the  legal  authority  of  the  village  mayor — fell  into 

29 


servitude  under  the  patrimonial  power  of  the  overlord.     A  power 
that  in  time  became  unlimited. 

Western  Europe  was  on  the  same  road  and  traveled  so  fast  in 
that  direction  that  she  soon  outstripped  us.  In  Europe  the  sway  of 
the  nobility  over  the  people  began  earlier  than  with  us  and  the  bur- 
den was  far  heavier  because  the  oppression  finally  took  on  the  nature 
of  imbounded  cruelty. 

Notwithstanding  the  unhappy  condition  of  the  serfs,  therehowever 
never  were  Princes  in  Poland  who  wore  belts  made  of  peasant  skins ; 
there  never  was  known  misery  that  caused  the  peasants  to  fly 
enmasse  over  the  boundaries;  the  Polish  Lord  did  not  sell  his 
people  after  the  manner  of  the  Lords  of  other  countries — a  thing 
that  still  happened  in  the  XVIIL  century  in  the  middle  of  Europe; 
bloody  revolts  of  the  serfs,  peasant  wars  followed  by  terrible  sup- 
pressions, likewise  the  indescribable  outbursts  of  despair  among  the 
rural  class  that  fill  the  annals  of  Europe  to  overflowing,— all  these 
were  unknown  in  our  country,  on  the  contrary  our  annals  expressly 
show  that  the  peasants  of  all  the  neighboring  countries,  in  order  to 
make  their  lives  easier,  came  and  settled  in  Poland.  At  the  time  of 
the  first  partition  of  Poland,  the  Russians  made  mention  of  the  so- 
called  damage  Poland  had  inflicted  on  her  by  giving  refuge  to  500,000 
Russian  peasants  from  the  border  districts.^ 

The  peasants  of  Pomerania,  Silesia  and  Moravia  came  in  droves 
to  Poland.  In  the  XVIIL  century  when  the  Austrian  government 
passed  treaties  for  the  interchange  of  fugitives.  Poland  alone  dis- 
claimed the  right  of  reciprocity,  because  her  peasants  never  emi- 
grated.^ During  the  time  of  the  greatest  subjection,  the  treatment 
received  by  the  Polish  peasants  never  reached  the  stage  of  cruelty, 
as  it  did  in  other  countries.  There  is  nothing  to  show  that  a  Polish 
Lord,  using  his  overlordship  right,  ever  put  his  subjects  to  death. 
Moreover,  serfdom  did  not  last  so  long  in  Poland  as  it  did  in  other 
countries  of  Europe;  only  during  the  XVII.  and  XVIIL  centuries, 
for  in  the  XVI.  century  the  golden  age  of  the  peasants  was  still 
reflected  from  the  two  previous  centuries.  "The  degree  of  subjec- 
tion in  Poland,  and  all  its  consequences,  never  reached  the  limits 
established  here  and  there  in  Western  Europe,"  said  Oswald  Balzer 


^  Thaddeus  Lubomirski :  The  agricultural  population  of  Poland. 

'Grunberg:  Die  Bauerbefreiung  in  Boehmen.  Maehren  u.  Schlesien. 
"Die  Reciprocitat  scheint  auch  von  diesen  Landern,  mit  Ausnahme  Polens, 
gewahrt  worden  zu  sein,  was  sich  leicht  dadurch  erklart,  dass  wohl  schles- 
ische  Unterthanen  in  grossen  Massen  nach  Polen  fliichteten,  nicht  aber 
umgekehrt'Y 


30 


who  had  a  competent  knowledge  of  the  PoHsh  organization.  The 
peasant  knew  that,  if  on  the  one  hand  he  had  duties  to  perform,  on 
the  other  he  had  rights;  he  knew  he  was  under  the  protection  of 
his  overlord  and  that  in  case  of  misfortune  (bad  harvest,  hail,  etc.) 
he  could  count  on  a  reduction  in  his  rent,  help  through  gifts  of  cattle, 
etc.  Add  to  this,  that  the  village  institutions  gave  the  peasant  a  certain 
degree  of  autonomy  by  allowing  him  to  take  part  in  the  administra- 
tion of  current  affairs.  These  decisions  sometimes  even  acquired 
the  force  of  a  law.' 

Neither  must  it  be  forgotten  that  a  lai^e  part  of  the  rural  class, 
the  peasants  on  the  royal  estates  and  in  part  those  on  the  ecclesias- 
tical domains,  enjoyed  certain  civic  rights  and  were  under  the  pro- 
tection of  the  State.  Also  there  was  a  greater  private  initiative  to 
improve  the  condition  of  the  people  in  Poland  than  anywhere  else. 
In  this  respect  Poland  had  fine  old  traditions,  for  when  the  Repub- 
lic was  at  the  height  of  its  development,  in  the  XVI.  century,  the 
remarkable  political  writer,  Andrew  Frycz-Modrzewski,  openly 
called  for  the  abolition  of  serfdom  and  for  equal  rights  for  all  classes. 

At  the  beginning  of  the  XVIII.  century  the  King,  Stanislas 
Leszczynski  in  his  "Treatise  on  the  Freedom  of  Speech"  prepared  the 
way  for  this  idea  of  the  necessity  to  emancipate  the  peasants  from 
the  legal,  economic  and  cultural  point  of  view.  This  idea  was  taken 
up  by  the  whole  of  society,  made  rapid  progress  and  gave  remark- 
able results.  Attempts  to  remodel  the  condition  of  peasant  life  on 
a  modern  basis  were  undertaken  about  1740  on  their  great  estates  by 
many  of  the  magnates :  the  Jablonowski,  Brzoztowski,  Zamoyski, 
Lubomirski,  Potocki,  Poniatowski,  Czartoryski,  Chreptowicz,  etc. 
This  movement  became  even  more  general  in  the  latter  part  of  that 
century.  Serfdom  was  abolished;  forced  labor  was  replaced  by 
tenure ;  the  peasants  were  given  personal  liberties,  autonomy,  etc. 

The  result  of  these  spontaneous  reforms  is  to  be  seen  in  a 
tangible  way  from  the  fact  that  on  the  estate  of  Prince  Stanislas 
Poniatowski  alone,  there  were  living  some  400,000  peasants  who 
were  for  the  most  part  free  and  established  as  "landowners". 
"Without  exaggeration,"  says  A.  Rembowski,''  "one  can  affirm  that 
in  no  other  country  of  Europe  was  private  initiative  to  renounce  the 
rights  of  the  privileged  class  carried  so  far  as  in  Poland  or  so  much 
good  done  for  the  peasants". 


*  Ulanowski :  The  jurisdiction  of  the  Polish  village  during  the  XVI.  and 
XVII.  centuries. 

*  A.  Rembowski :  Comparison  of  State  Constitutions. 

31 


The  great  reforms  of  May  3rd,  1791,  improved  the  legal  status 
of  the  peasants.  Notwithstanding  its  imperfections  it  was  so  liberal 
in  comparison  with  those  which  generally  existed  abroad,  that  the 
Russian  Chancellor  Bezborodko  expressed  fear  that  the  "Polish  epi- 
demic" would  spread  and  Leopold,  Emperor  of  Austria,  ordered  the 
Governor  of  Galicia  to  work  out  a  memorial  on  "what  might  be  done 
for  the  peasants  and  middle  classes  after  the  reforms  adopted  in 
Poland". 

Three  years  later,  in  1794,  the  military  leader  Kosciuszko,  in 
reality  the  popular  dictator,  made  a  great  step  in  advance,  when  in 
his  manifesto  of  Polaniec  he  proclaimed  new  decrees  in  favor  of 
the  peasants.  This  last  political  act  of  independent  Poland,  that  regu- 
lated the  status  of  the  peasant  class,  gave  them,  among  other  things 
the  protection  of  the  government,  the  right  of  permanent  abode,  and 
other  individual  rights,  victories  that  for  that  epoch  were  of  great 
import. 

Aside  from  these  historical  events  the  annals  of  Poland  furnish 
us  with  psychological  facts  of  equally  great  importance  that  charac- 
terize the  relationship  existing  between  the  nobility  and  the  people. 

The  old  popular  tradition  attaches  to  the  name  of  the  last  king 
of  the  Piast  dynasty,  the  wise  and  good  Gasimir,  the  surname  of  "King 
of  the  Peasants",  (a  title  accorded  no  other  king  in  history)  in 
memory  of  his  solicitude  in  their  behalf.  This  was  the  only  King, 
among  all  the  kings  who  through  eight  centuries  occupied  the  throne 
of  Poland,  to  whom  the  infallible  instinct  of  the  people  attributed  the 
title  "Great" !  In  a  coimtry  where  the  only  "Great"  king  was  at 
the  same  time  the  "King  of  the  Peasants"  the  condition  of  the  peas- 
ants must  have  been  supportable  even  in  the  worst  epochs. 

A  second  psychological  document  still  more  profoundly  ex- 
pressive of  the  relationship  existing  between  the  nobility  and  the 
people  was  the  devotion  of  the  nobility  to  Kosciuszko.  We  have 
drawn  attention  to  the  fact  that  Kosciuszko  inaugurated  progressive 
reforms,  that  were,  for  the  epoch,  almost  revolutionary.  The  leader 
of  agonizing  Poland  in  all  his  public  efforts  tried  to  give  social  jus- 
tice to  what  is  called  the  "lower  classes".  The  companion  in  arms 
of  Washington,  after  having  taken  part  in  the  struggle  for  inde- 
pendence in  America,  after  having  been  glorified  by  him  as  the 
"truest  son  of  freedom",  came  back  to  Poland  and  took  up  arms 
against  the  invaders  of  the  fatherland ;  he  called  the  peasants  to  his 
standards;  he  continually  manifested  his  democratic  ideas  and  de- 
clared "that  he  was  not  fighting  for  the  nobility  alone  but  for  the 

32 


whole  people".  After  the  glorious  battle  of  Raclawice,  during  which 
the  peasants  of  Cracow,  armed  only  with  their  scythes,  took  the 
Russian  cannon  by  assault,  Kosciuszko  ostentatiously  dressed  him- 
self in  the  "sukmana"  *  of  the  peasant,  he  the  Dictator  of  the  Repub- 
lic where  the  nobles  were  masters.  And,  as  all  that  did  not  dampen 
the  enthusiasm  of  which  Kosciuszko  was  the  object,  we  may  be  sure 
that  the  gulf  dug  by  history  between  the  noblity  and  the  people  in 
Poland  was  not  a  very  deep  one. 

Lastly,  the  innate  gentleness  of  character  that  belongs  to  the 
Pole  "dulcis  sanquis  polonarum",  gentleness  that  had  been  remarked 
by  foreigners  in  the  XVI.  century  and  because  of  which  the  Poles 
had  always  remained  humane,  even  to  their  enemies,  was  the  reason 
why  there  never  was  such  oppression  practised  in  Poland  as  by  the 
nobility  of  other  countries. 

An  example,  the  first  one  to  mind ;  the  supreme  National 
Council  that  directed  the  last  struggle  against  the  invaders  in  1794 
declared  to  the  people  that  "revenge  on  the  enemy  did  not  mean  to 
direct  their  vengeance  against  a  defenseless  people,  against  prisoners, 
against  any  to  whom  they  should  guarantee  security,  but  that  ven- 
geance worthy  a  Pole  consisted  solely  in  giving  proof  of  courage". 

In  1 83 1,  Warsaw,  for  the  moment  liberated,  gave  a  striking  ex- 
ample to  humanity :  the  people  gave  relief  to  the  prisoners  of  war, 
the  wounded  Poles  gave  up  their  places  in  the  ambulances  to  wounded 
Russians  and  the  National  government  supplied  the  necessary  funds 
from  the  budget  to  provide  a  school  for  the  Russian  children  remain- 
ing in  Poland. 

A  nation  that  showed  such  humanity  to  an  enemy  could  not  have 
been  cruel  to  their  own  people  and  so  the  hard  laws  that  governed  the 
life  of  the  Polish  peasants  of  long  ago,  were  surely  more  tempered 
than  exaggerated. 

It  is  true  that  the  freedom  that  was  so  greatly  developed  in 
Poland  was  restricted  to  the  nobility  alone.  But  still  that  fact  cannot 
be  used  against  the  value  of  Polish  freedom  in  general. 

The  fact  of  giving  vast  privileges  to  one  class  only  of  the  popula- 
tion was  a  custom  of  the  ancient  Republics,  that,  even  in  our  time, 
are  everywhere  considered  as  models  of  democracy  and  liberty.  The 
same  thing  has  happened  in  the  United  States  of  America,  in  quite 
recent  times,  where  the  Federal  Constitution,  one  of  the  most  liberal 
in  the  world,  while  conferring  political  rights  on  the  white  population 
did  not  abolish  slavery  among  the  negroes.    "All  men  of  color  and 


A  coat  of  homespun  woolen  cloth  worn  by  the  peasants. 

33 


their  posterity,  present  and  future,  shall  remain  slaves  forever  and 
be  subject  to  sale  or  gift  equaling  household  goods  and  conforming 
to  their  nature,"  declares  American  law,  the  law  of  the  country  that 
had,  however,  already  given  birth  to  the  immortal  "Declarations  of 
Jefferson.  And  these  laws  were  not  abolished  until  1866  and  only 
after  1.  rrible  civil  war.  But  no  one  because  of  this  would  be  so 
absurd  as  to  doubt  the  greatness  of  the  political  and  social  principles 
that  proclaimed  to  the  world  the  birth  of  free  America,  and  that 
made  it  possible  for  America  to  outstrip  the  old  Europe  by  nearly 
a  century. 

It  is  the  same  with  Polish  institutions.  At  the  time  when  all 
classes  in  other  countries  were  without  political  or  civil  rights  while, 
on  the  contrary,  at  least  one  class  in  Poland,  and  that  a  very  numerous 
class  had  rights;  at  the  time  when  in  all  the  countries  of  Western 
Europe  the  fate  of  the  State  depended  on  the  will  of  one  person, 
while  in  Poland  a  million  inhabitants  had  the  right  to  take  part  in  the 
government,  how  illogical  one  must  be  and  what  ill-will  one  must 
show  to  deny  without  and  against  all  evidence  the  high  value  of 
Polish  liberties  by  alleging  sophistically  that  these  liberties  were  not 
enjoyed  by  the  whole  people. 


-o- 


VII 
RELIGIOUS  TOLERATION. 

RELIGIOUS  LIBERTY  RESULTING  FROM  POLITICAL  FREEDOM. — THE  JEWS. — ^THE 

REFORMATION.— THE   TOLERATION    LAW     ( I573)  .—EQUAL    RIGHTS    GRANTED 

TO  ALL  RELIGIONS. — POLAND  THE  REFUGE  OF  THE  PERSECUTED. — WHAT  WAS 

THE    ASPECT   OF   THE   REACTION    IN   POLAND? — THE    UNION    OF    BREST. 

The  cult  of  liberty — the  source  to  which  the  Polish  organization 
owed  all  its  characteristic  traits  that  favored  the  development  of  the 
different  autonomies  that  were  based  either  on  historical  or  ethnical 
peculiarities — created  religious  toleration,  carried  it  to  a  degree 
unknown  in  Europe  and  gave  to  it,  at  the  time  of  it  greatest  vitality, 
a  truly  modern  stamp. 

We  already  know  of  the  great  freedom  accorded  to  the  Jews  in 
Poland  in  the  management  of  their  private  affairs.  This  same 
freedom  was  extended  still  farther  into  the  more  intimate  domain 

34 


of  religious  faith.  In  fact  the  Jewish  religion  always  enjoyed  the 
most  complete  liberty  in  Poland.  Religious  persecution,  so  ruthless 
elsewhere,  was  not  known  even  by  name  in  Poland,  although  through 
many  distressing  circumstances  for  the  country'  the  Jewish  element, 
so  different  from  the  Armenian  and  Tartar  element,  gave  evidence 
only  of  a  very  questionable  loyalty  to  this  most  hospitable  State. 

Violence,  of  any  nature  whatsoever,  was  repugnant  to  the  Polish 
character.  Never  were  there  "pogroms"  in  Poland.  At  the  time  of 
the  most  intense  Catholic  reaction  the  anti- Jewish  disturbances  in 
Poland  were  but  trifles  compared  with  the  frightful  scenes  of  cruelty 
witnessed  in  Western  Europe.  Jewish  blood  was  not  shed  in  Poland. 
At  no  time  were  the  Jews  plundered  and  stripped  of  their  property. 
Never  were  they  driven  out  of  the  Polish  cities.  Even  less  were 
they  obliged  to  submit  to  religious  persecutions.  The  most  flourishing 
centers  of  the  Jewish  cult  were  to  be  found  in  Poland. 

"The  Jews,"  states  a  Jewish  paper*  enjoyed  a  most  magnani- 
mous religious  toleration  and  the  greatest  freedom  during  the  entire 
existence  of  Independent  Poland". 

Thus  religious  fanaticism  was  ignored  in  Poland  and  every  one 
was  left  free  to  worship  God  after  his  own  fashion.  These  liberal 
ideas  reached  their  height  during  the  Reformation.  The  reform 
movement  appeared  very  early  in  Poland  and  the  Republic,  attached 
by  so  many  ties  to  the  West  and  drawing  so  abundantly  from  the 
intellectual  sources  of  Europe,  made  little  opposition  to  the  promul- 
gation of  new  ideas. 

Classic  culture  that  was  widely  diflf used  among  the  upper  classes 
had  prepared  the  ground  for  religious  reforms.  A  great  many 
members  of  Poland's  first  families,  the  Radziwill,  Leszcynski,  Gorka, 
Olesnicki,  Ostrorog,  Firlej,  Stadnicki,  Zborowski,  Laski,  Tomicki 
and  a  great  many  others  renounced  Catholicism.  The  Archbishop 
Uchanski  even  had  the  design  of  founding  a  national  church.  Nicho- 
las Rey,  one  of  the  great  national  writers,  was  drawn  into  this  new 
current.  Numberless  non-conformist  institutions :  schools,  printing 
houses,  churches,  etc.,  spread  over  the  Republic;  Calvinism  and 
Lutheranism  branched  out  more  and  more.  Adepts  of  different 
sects  and  religions  made  their  appearance  in  Poland;  the  "Bohemian 
Brothers",  "Polish  Arianism"  and  many  others.  Jan  Laski,  a  Pole, 
undertook  a  proselyting  journey  and  traveled  as  far  as  England, 
Friesland  and  Denmark. 


*  Moriah,  December,  1916. 

35 


This  great  evolution  of  thought  was  accompanied  by  a  spirit  of 
toleration  that  not  only  existed  nowhere  else  in  Europe  but  that 
Europe  many  times  found  difficult  to  understand.  Western  Europe 
burned  "heretics"  at  the  stake;  blood  flowed  in  streams  "ad  majorem 
Dei  Gloriam";  thousands  perished  on  the  scaffold;  others,  hunted 
like  wild  beasts,  fled  from  one  country  to  another. 

Poland  knew  little  of  the  tortures  of  the  inquisition.  The 
Republic  did  no  violence  to  the  conscience  nor  did  she  stir  up  reli- 
gious wars.  The  bloody  persecutions  of  the  dissenters  was  unknown 
in  this  Catholic  country. 

The  people  who  created  the  creed  of  individual  freedom  in  their 
political  life  could  not  be  false  to  that  principle  in  the  spiritual  do- 
main of  religion.  Civic  freedom,  logically,  gave  birth  to  liberty  of 
conscience  and  therefore  to  liberty  of  religion. 

The  Polish  authorities  immediately  took  a  most  liberal  attitude 
toward  the  Reformation.  In  reality,  religious  freedom  was  estab- 
lished at  the  very  beginning  of  the  movement  although  it  was  not 
at  first  sanctioned  by  a  constitutional  clause. 

During  the  XV.  and  XVI.  centuries,  although  the  Polish  Kings, 
in  their  special  decrees,  always  severely  reproved  the  non-conform- 
ists for  their  "religious  innovations",  they  left  them  in  practice  en- 
tirely free.  We  find  Protestants  among  the  highest  dignitaries  of  the 
country.  There  were  Protestants  who  presided  over  the  Diet  of  the 
Republic.  The  fact  of  belonging  to  a  religion  other  than  Catholic- 
ism did  not  hinder  in  any  way  the  fulfilment  of  public  office.  More- 
over, even  before  the  Reformation  our  attention  is  drawn  to  a  signifi- 
cent  fact :  the  wife  of  Alexander  Jagello,  Queen  Helen,  observed  the 
Greek  religion  and  had  in  the  Chateau  of  Wilno  her  own  private 
chapel. 

At  the  time  when  diflferent  European  Princes  were  steeped  in 
the  blood  of  their  subjects  who  belonged  to  a  different  religion 
from  their  own;  at  the  time  when  the  principle  "cuius  regio,  eius 
religio"  put  to  shame  this  social  condition,  the  great  founder  of  the 
Union  of  Lublin,  Sigismund  August,  the  last  of  the  Jagellon  Kings, 
addressed  to  his  people  these  memorable  words :  "I  am  not  king  of 
your  consciences". 

It  was  not  long  before  the  non-Conformists  in  Poland  received 
a  legal  guarantee  ensuring  the  free  worship  of  their  faith,  and  thus 
the  liberty  that  they  had  already  enjoyed  was  sanctioned.  It  was 
after  this  event  that  the  Crown  Chancellor,  Jan  Zamoyski,  pro- 
nounced the  words  that  show  so  well  the  state  of  mind  of  the 

36 


Polish  people:  "If  it  would  lead  you  back  to  Catholicism  I  would 
gladly  give  up  half  of  my  life  and  with  the  other  half  I  should  live 
rejoicing  in  this  union.  But  if  anyone  should  try  to  compel  you, 
then  I  would  give  up  all  my  life,  rather  than  be  obliged  to  witness 
this  compulsion". 

The  law  relative  to  the  liberty  of  conscience,  decreed  at  the 
memorable  Diet  of  Convocation  in  1573,  proves  the  large  and  gener- 
out  spirit  of  the  Republic  and  brilliantly  shows  the  maturity  and  high 
development  of  the  culture  attained  in  Poland.  At  the  time  when 
fanaticism  raged  in  the  West,  the  Polish  law  "de  pace  inter  dissi- 
dentes",  enacted  on  January  28th,  1573,  recognized  the  legal  exist- 
ence of  all  the  professions  of  faith  observed  in  the  country  and  de- 
clared that  none  should  be  persecuted  because  of  their  religious 
convictions. 

Thus,  religious  toleration  was  sanctioned  by  the  constitution  of 
the  Republic  and  became  one  of  the  fundamental  laws  of  the  country. 
From  then  on  every  King  upon  his  accession  was  obliged  to  swear 
allegiance  to  this  new  constitutional  law,  as  well  as  to  all  the  other 
laws  that  had  been  enacted  before.  This  right  was  accorded  to  the 
peasants  as  well  as  to  the  nobility  and  middle  classes.  "That  a  peas- 
ant was  forced  to  go  to  church  or  punished  because  he  observed 
another  religion  that  that  of  his  overlord,  that  was  never  seen," 
declared  a  Polish  writer  of  the  XVII.  century.  * 

Poland  produced  the  effect  of  an  absolute  phenomenon  at  the 
time  when  the  religious  wars  were  drenching  Europe  with  blood. 
The  eyes  of  all  those  who  suffered  were  turned  to  Poland,  to  the 
customs  inspired  by  humane  principles  and  the  rights  and  liberties 
that  this  people  enjoyed.  Immediately  after  the  Saint  Bartholomew 
night  the  French  Huguenots  demanded  of  their  King  to  "follow  the 
example  of  Poland". 

At  the  time  of  the  great  efflorescence  of  the  Reformaton  Poland 
became  the  asylum  of  the  persecuted.  Many  foreign  reformers: 
Ochino,  Statorius,  Stankar,  Lismaninus,  Socinius,  Lelio  and  Faust 
driven  from  their  own  countries,  came  and  continued  their  activity 
in  Poland.  Entire  sects  found  protection  and  often  new  fields  of 
endeavor.  One  part  of  the  "Hussite"  sect,  the  "Bohemian  Brothers" 
driven  from  Bohemia  in  1548,  took  refuge  in  great  numbers  in 
Poland.  Again  in  the  XVII.  century,  upon  the  decline  of  the  spirit 
of  toleration,  great  numbers  of  Germans,  persecuted  in  their  country, 


*  Rembowski :  "The  Confederation  and  the  Revolt. 

Z7 


settled  in  the  western  part  of  the  Republic  along  the  Brandenburg 
and  Silesian  borders. 

This  state  of  things  continued  for  two  centuries.  During  the 
XVII.  century,  however,  Catholicism  gaining  the  upper  hand,  the 
liberties  of  the  Protestants  were  restricted.  But  what  was  it  in  com- 
parison with  that  which  was  happening  in  the  rest  of  Europe  ?  There 
were  manifestations  in  certain  cities,  produced  by  strong  religious 
tension,  but  without  bloodshed. 

These  manifestations  against  which,  moreover,  special  laws 
were  enacted  (Constitution  on  Troubles)  never  degenerated  into 
civil  war  as  in  other  countries. 

That  which  is  called  the  Catholic  reaction  in  Poland  was  simply 
the  return  of  many  non-Conformists  to  the  old  faith.  As  for  the 
fanaticism  that  was  manifested  during  the  last  half  of  the  XVII. 
and  the  first  half  of  the  XVIII.  centuries,  it  consisted  simply  in  the 
refusal  to  allow  the  building  of  new  Protestant  churches  in  the  towns 
where  the  majority  of  the  population  was  Catholic  and  restrictions  of 
certain  forms  of  the  Protestant  faith  that  were  too  demonstrative, 
and,  lastly,  the  expulsion  of  the  Arians,  who  were  universally  detested 
and  suspected  of  carrying  on  traitorous  relations  with  the  enem>, 
that  is  with  the  Swedes.  It  is  to  be  remarked,  however,  that  the 
members  of  this  abhorred  sect  were  given  two  years  in  which  to 
liquidate  their  private  affairs. 

The  execution  of  the  nobleman  Lyszczynski,  accused  of  atheism, 
religious  murder  ordered  by  the  Diet  of  1669,  remained  an  isolated 
case.  But,  finally,  the  non-Conformists  began  to  be  eliminated  from 
different  offices  and  dignities,  except  in  the  cities,  where  up  to  the 
end  they  were  still  allowed  to  hold  different  positions. 

But  it  is  well  to  note  the  length  of  time  it  took  for  this  reaction 
to  develop;  this  slowness  seems  to  prove  without  the  shadow  of 
doubt  that  it  was  not  in  harmony  with  the  natural  inclination  of 
the  nation. 

During  the  whole  of  the  XVII.  century  although  the  Catholic 
fanaticism  made  violent  progress  (because  of  the  remarkable  activ- 
ity of  the  Jesuits)  the  political  rights  of  the  non-Conformists  re- 
mained intact;  until  1718  we  see  them  as  "nonces"  in  the  Diet;  until 
1733  they  sat  on  the  bench  as  elective  judges  and  filled  other  public 
positions. 

Thus  we  see  that  the  non-Conformists  kept  all  their  rights  until 
the  middle  of  the  XVIII.  century  and  hardly  had  they  lost  them 
(only  for  a  very  short  space  of  time)  when  the  new  idealistic  current 

38 


made  its  way  into  Poland,  the  new  "light"  that  brought  in  the  reforms 
of  the  Great  Diet  (i  788-1 791). 

The  relatively  short  duration  of  the  Catholic  reaction  in  Poland 
and  its  slow  advance  is  proof  that  the  principle  of  religious  toleration 
was  profoundly  inherent  in  the  Polish  character. 

So  it  was  in  Poland,  and  only  in  Poland,  that  the  difficult  task  of 
reconciling  the  two  churches  was  brought  to  a  happy  conclusion :  the 
Oriental  and  Roman  Catholic  churches.  Work  that  was  so  often  un- 
dertaken elsewhere  without  definite  results. 

Hardly  thirty  years  after  the  union  of  Lithuania  with  Poland, 
in  1569,  time  of  the  beginning  of  the  political  unions,  Poland  suc- 
ceeded also  in  bringing  about  the  union  of  these  two  great  factions  of 
Christianity. 

The  union  of  the  Greek  and  Roman  churches  was  sealed  at  the 
Synod  of  Brest  (Brzesc  Litewski)  in  1595.  By  this  memorable  act 
the  Greek  church  while  keeping  its  organization  and  peculiar  rites, 
recognized  the  supremacy  of  the  Pope.  While  the  union  of  Florence 
(1439)  had  only  an  ephemeral  existence  and  terminated  in  a  new 
separation  of  the  churches  the  union  of  Brest  was  so  strong  that  when 
Russia  tried  to  introduce  the  orthodox  religion  into  the  countries  torn 
from  Poland,  when  she  tried  to  convert  the  "Uniates",  she  was 
obliged  to  have  recourse  to  armed  force  ( 1874). 

But  still  notwithstanding  all  the  persecutions,  these  Uniates, 
of  whom  there  are  several  million,  continue  to  recognize  the  Pope  as 
the  head  of  their  church. 


-o- 


VIII. 
JURISDICTION. 

THE   DREAD  OF  COERCION. — THE   MORAL  TIES   OF   SOCIAL   LIFE. — THE    SENTI- 
MENT  OF   RIGHT. — JURISDICTION. — PUBLICITY    OF   DEBATE   AND    DEFENSE. — 
PROPERTY. — PUBLIC     SECURITIES. — FOREIGN     OPINIONS. 

The  evolution  of  the  creative  genius  of  political  life  in  Poland, 
the  organization  of  the  country  based  on  the  principle :  "No  decision 
without  our  sanction",  the  freedom  of  elections,  supported  by  the 
article  concerning  the  refusal  to  obey  the  King,  the  unions,  the 
autonomies  founded  on  the  principle  of  religious  toleration. — all 
bring  out  the  inherent  characteristics  of  the  Polish  nature :  the  dread 
of  coercion. 


39 


All  of  the  great  manifestations  of  the  Polish  people  have  been 
due  to  motives  which  were  freely  recognized  and  profoundly  felt. 

The  bonds  of  the  collective  life  to  be  conceded,  had  to  have 
the  moral  sanction  of  all  those  belonging  to  the  community.  Valerian 
Kalinka,  the  great  Polish  historian,  has  thus  characterized  the 
Polish  nobleman  and  his  life :  "Either  as  an  official  or  officer  he  never 
considered  himself  an  inferior  but  always  as  a  voluntary  fellow- 
worker;  in  private  life  as  well,  he  was  bound  by  tradition,  faith, 
customs  and  hierarchy  but  as  he  recognized  and  admitted  all  these 
things  of  his  own  free  will,  he  did  not  know  or  endure  coercion". 

Contrary  to  current  theories  according  to  which  the  State  was 
looked  upon  as  a  compulsory  organization,  Poland  was  able  to  live 
through  long  centuries  faithful  to  the  ideas  we  have  just  stated. 

In  the  XVI  and  XVII.  centuries,  Poland,  "the  powerful,"  also 
knew  how  to  be  aggressive :  she  entered  Moscow  two  hundred  years 
before  Napoleon ;  she  saved  Christianity  under  the  walls  of  Vienna 
and  ended  the  power  of  the  Turk.  "And  still,"  says  Kalinka,  "the 
whole  organization  of  the  Republic  rested  on  the  will  of  the  citizen". 

In  reorganizing  public  administration,  when  the  great  reforms 
of  May  3rd,  1791,  were  introduced,  the  Polish  State  created  "civil 
and  military  commissions",  that  were  the  first  manifestations  of 
modem  bureaucracy.  But  this  bureaucracy  had  the  same  national 
characterictics  that  had  dominated  the  previous  epoch :  every  official 
considered  it  an  honor  to  fulfill  his  civil  duty  as  a  citizen  to  the 
country  and  respect  for  the  laws  took  the  place  of  the  discipline  nec- 
essary in  modem  times. 

This  is  what  the  distinguished  historian,  T.  Korzon,  says  con- 
cerning this  administration :  "A  study  of  registers,  protocols  and  of 
divers  dicisions,  leads  us  to  the  conclusion  that  the  working  of  the 
civil  and  military  commission  was  entirely  satisfactory  to  the  au- 
thorities and  population  and  that  their  decisions  were  accepted  by  all 
the  community  without  compulsion.* 

In  the  flourishing  time  of  the  Republic,  during  the  XVI.  and 
first  half  of  the  XVII.  centuries,  the  mechanism  of  the  Polish  State 
moved  smoothly  notwithstanding  the  absence  of  all  force.  But  dur- 
ing the  following  century  the  will  of  the  citizen  became  insufficient 
to  hold  the  State  structure  together  under  the  same  conditions. 

This  was  the  most  unfortunate  epoch  for  the  Republic,  the  time 
of  the  Polish  anarchy  that  was  intentionally  descried  and  blackened 
by  the  partisans  of  "salutary  brute  force". 


*  T.  Korzon :  History  of  Poland  during  the  time  of  Stanislas  August. 

40 


However,  even  in  those  trying  times,  that  moral  force,  the  senti- 
ment of  right,  that  had  been  manifested  through  the  whole  history  of 
Poland,  although  enfeebled  and  sometimes  degenerated,  was  still 
upheld  by  the  people  as  a  whole. 

Moreover,  this  phenomenon  is  perfectly  comprehensible.  A 
people  that  had  never  had  laws  imposed  by  others,  a  people  that  had 
always  been  their  own  legislators,  must,  by  the  very  nature  of  things, 
have  succeeded  in  developing  the  sentiment  of  right  to  a  higher 
degree  than  people  whose  every  disposition  to  collaborate  in  the 
formation  of  the  legal  precepts,  that  govern  social  life,  had  been 
annihilated  by  the  arbitrary  will  of  the  one  to  whom  they  were 
subjected. 

One  of  the  characteristic  traits  of  Polish  history  is  the  complete 
absence  of  the  period  called  "the  law  of  might",  the  "Faustrecht" 
("the  mailed  fist").  This  "Faustrecht,"  the  fruit  of  anarchy  in  the 
fullest  sense  of  the  word,  that  authorized  everyone  to  resort  to 
violence  in  any  disagreement,  was  considered  at  certain  times  and 
places  as  the  legal  regime,  there  where  tribunals  and  governments 
were  unknown  and  the  arbitrary  exercise  of  justice  was  the  privilege 
of  all  those  who  had  at  their  command  the  supreme  argument  of 
force.  Germany,  notably,  put  the  "Faustrecht",  that  had  formerly 
served  through  several  centuries,  into  force  again  during  the  thirty 
years'  war. 

Law  was  never  so  distorted  in  Poland.  Anarchy  was  manifested 
in  the  Republic  only  by  a  few  acts  of  violence  organized  by  certain 
noblemen  whose  aims  were  to  proceed  with  private  executions  of 
judgments  rendered  by  the  tribunals.  On  the  other  hand  these 
"assaults"  (Zajazd)  that  were  very  infrequent  were  always  con- 
sidered as  "reprehensible  violations  of  public  law." 

When  anarchy  was  at  its  height,  towards  the  middle  of  the 
XVIII.  century,  it  was  not  rare  to  see  the  law  severely  applied :  it 
was  thus  that  the  powerful  Lithuanian  magnate,  Wollowicz,  was 
condemned  to  death  for  his  criminal  adventures. 

In  all  the  judicial  activity  of  Poland  the  pith  and  marrow  of 
the  two  fundamental  principles  that  served  as  a  basis  for  the  struc- 
ture of  the  State,  stand  out :  the  cult  of  liberty  and  respect  for  the 
individual.  This,  more  than  all  else,  hastened  the  maturity  of  the 
political,  legislative  and  judicial  organization  of  Poland. 

While  in  all  European  monarchies,  except  England,  to  make 
inquiry  into  a  trial,  they  resorted  to  "inquisitorial  proceedings,  writ- 
ten and  secret",  to  "  confusing  questions"  and  to  torture,  in  Poland 

41 


the  procedure  remained  true  to  the  principles  of  publicity  and  the 
spoken  word  for  the  debates  of  the  accusation  as  well  as  for  the  de- 
fense. These  principles  were  not  introduced  into  Europe  until 
the  XIX.  century  under  the  influence  of  the  great  French  Revolu- 
tion, and  before  this  revolution  were  applied  only  in  England 
and  in  Poland,  Favored  by  these  principles  the  sentiment  of  right 
developed  quite  differently  than  with  people  subject  to  absolutism. 
It  is  sufficient  to  state  one  characteristic  trait:  the  condemned  man, 
of  his  own  free  will,  went  to  prison  to  serve  his  sentence.  In  the 
case  of  his  not  giving  himself  up,  he  became  an  "exile"  in  the  eyes 
of  the  world,  a  man  outside  of  the  law,  who  could  be  killed  by  any 
one  with  impunity. 

How  deeply  the  respect  for  the  law  was  imbedded  in  the  minds 
of  the  people  may  be  seen  from  the  fact  that  many  times  the  Polish 
Courts  of  the  XVIII.  century,  in  handing  down  their  decisions, 
even  took  their  stand  on  clauses  of  the  statute  (Statute  of  Wis- 
lica)  drawn  in  the  XIV.  century.  The  famous  "mania  for  law- 
suits" of  the  time  of  the  decline,  that  was  so  fatal  to  the  people, 
still  shows,  however,  to  what  a  degree  the  authority  of  the  law  was 
recognized.  The  "law"  was  always  one  of  the  favorite  professions. 
It  was  a  national  passion  like  agriculture  and  the  army.  In  fact, 
during  the  time  of  the  great  outbursts  of  passion,  notwithstanding 
the  mental  abberations  and  regardless  of  the  political  troubles,  the 
Poles  perserved  a  profound  cult  for  the  idea  of  Law.  "On  this  sub- 
ject they  are  capable  of  becoming  fanatics,"  remarked,  in  1767, 
Repnine,  the  Russian  ambassador  who  cordially  hated  the  Poles. 
This  respect  for  law  was  also  manifested  by  the  fact  that  the  State 
Chancellor  could  refuse  to  affix  the  seal  to  an  illegal  or  unconstitu- 
tional act,  although  ordered  to  do  so  by  the  King. 

The  respect  for  property  was  not  only  impressed  on  the  minds 
of  the  nobility  but  on  that  of  all  the  people.  A  popular  saying  alleged 
that  it  was  "easier  to  lose  one's  life  in  Poland  than  his  goods". 

As  to  public  safety,  the  touchstone  of  order  in  a  political  organ- 
ization, we  have  the  precious  testimony  of  a  foreign  writer,  Rulhiere,* 
who  certifies  that  "Poland  seems  to  be  happy  and  quiet  in  the 
midst  of  the  surrounding  anarchy,"  that  "safety  prevails  in  the  cities," 
that  "travelers  can  go  through  the  most  lonesome  forests  or  along  the 
most  frequented  highways  with  all  security,"  that  "crimes  are  unheard 
of"  and  that  "nothing  can  better  confirm  the  theory  of  those  philoso- 
phers who  claim  that  man  is  by  nature  good". 


*  Rulhiere:   History  of  Anarchy  in   Poland  and  the  dismemberment  of 
this  Republic,    (in  French).     Paris,   1807. 

42 


/     , 

In  1779  a  professor  from  Cambridge  University,  Cox,  travel- 
ing with  Lord  Herbert,  notes  the  fact  that  during  all  their  journey 
through  Poland  nothing  had  been  stolen  from  them,  although  their 
traveling  carriage  had  alway  been  left  in  the  street  without  a  guard, 
while  in  Russia,  never  a  night  passed  that  something  was  not  pil- 
fered although  a  servant  slept  in  the  carriage." 

Another  traveler,  the  German  Biesler,'  asserts  that  in  Poland 
"One  can  move  about  with  the  greatest  security  even  though  having 

in  one's  possession  thousands  of  ducats". 

Schulz,'  a  Livonian,  hostile  to  Poland,  who  lived  in  that  country 
from  1788  to  1793,  maintains  that  one  must  not  believe  what  one 
hears  about  the  insecurity  of  the  highways  in  Poland.  "I  have 
crossed  Poland  three  times ;  many  of  rny  friends  have  done  likewise 
and  never  have  we  seen  the  least  suspicious  thing". 

Add  to  these  assertioi|s  the  evidence  of  Thaddeus  Korzon  *  who 
writes :  "Each  quarter,  from  the  provinces  of  Posen,  Cracow,  Kamie- 
niec,  chests  containing  the  fiscal  circonscriptions  amounting  some- 
times to  a  million  florins  were  sent  to  Warsaw  under  the  escort  of 
one  or  perhaps  two  horsemen.  That  these  treasure  chests  arrived  so 
regularly  at  their  destination  is  really  a  remarkable  fact.  After 
having  examined  all  the  acts  concerning  the  activity  of  the  Treasury 
Commission  we  are  satisfied  that  during  thirty  years  no  transport  was 
lost  and  that  only  once  a  chest  was  stolen  by  a  band  of  Cossacks  at 
Latyszow  near  the  Turkish  border','. 

"Since,"  remarks  the  same  author  judicially,  "public  safety  is 
one  of  the  aims  of  every  penal  system,  and  since  this  aim  has  always 
been  attained  in  a  manner  worthy  of  admiration  in  Poland,  it  must 
be  recognized  that  the  Polish  system  had  superior  qualities  before 
which  many  defects  are  obliterated." 


^  Cox :  Travels  into  Poland.  Russia  and  Denmark. 
^Xavier  Liske:  Foreigners  in  Poland.    1791. 
^  Schulz  :  Reise  eines  Lieflanders. 

*  Thaddeus  Korzon:   History  of    Poland  during   the   reign   of    Stanislas 
August. 

43 


IX. 

THE  POLISH  WARS. 

AVERSION  TO  WARS  OF  CONQUEST. — THE  KING  PIAST's  SYMBOL. — THE  LOVE 
OF  PEACE. — CUSTOMS. — MILITARY  SERVICE,  THE  GENERAL  LEVY. — THE  PUR- 
PORT OF  THE  POLISH  WARS. — THE  RAMPART  OF  EUROPE. — THE  COMPETENCY 
OF  THE  DIET  ON   WAR  QUESTIONS.— THE  EQUITABILITY  OF  WAR  PROBLEMS, 

Poland  gave  up  the  barbarous  creed  of  war  very  early.  As  soon 
as  she  passed  out  of  the  youthful  period  of  her  history  she  ceased  the 
pursuit  of  martial  conquests.  During  the  last  five  centuries  of  her 
independent  existence  her  growth  was  entirely  due  to  her  moral 
force.  The  invasion  of  a  foreign  country,  after  the  manner  of 
robbers,  even  under  the  cover  of  "State  interests",  was  commonly 
considered  in  Poland  as  cowardly.  Arms  were  taken  up  only  in 
legitimate  defense  and  this  explains  the  characteristic  name  of 
"necessity"    ("potrzeba")   that  in  olden  times  was  given  to  war. 

Stephen  Buszczynski,  speaking  of  the  historical  role  of  the 
Polish  people,  dwells  upon  the  fact  that  while  other  States  almost 
always  owe  their  origin  to  the  power  of  a  conqueror  or  to  the  plun- 
derings  of  a  brigand  chief,  popular  legend  places  near  the  cradle  of 
Poland  a  peasant  king, — the  legendary  Piast, — symbol  of  labor,  the 
creator  of  peace.  It  is  also  to  be  noted  that  the  title  of  "great"  be- 
stowed but  once  by  the  Polish  people  was  not  conferred  upon  one 
of  the  many  warrior  kings,  but  upon  a  sovereign  who  made  himself 
memorable  by  his  codification  (the  Statute  of  Wislica)  ;  who  founded 
the  first  university  in  Poland;  who  erected  public  monuments;  who 
built  cities  and  who  passed  on  to  posterity  with  the  praise  of  having 
found  "a  wooden  Poland  and  left  one  built  of  stone".  It  was  this 
architect-King,  this  King  friend  of  labor  and  peace  who  alone  re- 
ceived the  title  of  "great" :  Piast  and  Casimir  the  Great,  symbolized 
all  of  Polish  history. 

The  imperialistic  desire  to  extend  dominion  "over  all  the  earth", 
that  was  the  cause  of  such  misery  and  so  much  bloodshed,  was  never 
felt  by  the  Polish  people  although  this  people  was  famous  for  its 
legendary  bravery.  This  tendency  of  domination  was  never  mani- 
fest in  Poland  not  even  when  she  was  at  the  height  of  her  power  and 
constituted  one  of  the  largest  monarchies  in  Europe. 

"In  the  midst  of  general  robbery,"  says  Julian  Klaczko,  "Poland 
exempt  from  covetousness  never  monopolized  the  lands  of  others 
even  though  she  had  every  opportunity  to  'rectify'  boundaries  or 
undertake  the  role  of  providence." 


44 


The  reply  of  the  illustrious  King,  Sigismund  "the  Old",  to  those 
who  offered  him  the  crown  of  Hungary  and  Bohemia,  "why  wish  to 
reign  over  several  peoples  when  it  is  so  difficult  to  contribute  to  the 
happiness  of  one",  were  memorable  words  that  have  many  times 
proven  true. 

The  Poles  never  sought  to  distinguish  themselves  in  the  warlike 
adventures  that  were  of  such  common  occurrence  in  the  olden 
times.  Choisnin,  a  delegate  to  Poland  in  1573,  wrote  with  the  great- 
est admiration  "this  nation  hates  the  spilling  of  blood  except  it  be 
in  open  fight  against  declared  enemies". 

The  Poles  were  aware  of  these  peculiar  traits  of  character  and 
of  the  high  moral  level  of  their  principles.  It  pleased  them  to  cite 
the  opinions  that  foreigners  had  of  them:  "dulcis  est  sanguis  polo- 
norum"  and  they  added  proudly :  "abhorrent  lectissimi  et  dulcissimi 
mores  nostri  abomni  crudelitate,  natura  ipsa  nostra  ad  omnem 
humanitatem  facia,  refugit  ferocitaten".^ 

The  army,  from  the  remotest  up  to  very  recent  times,  was 
formed  from  a  "general  call  to  arms",  the  "pospolite  ruszenie". 

Defense  was  the  only  employment  to  which  this  army  could  be 
put  and  in  consequence  it  could  not  be  used  outside  national  territory. 
Every  citizen-noble  was  obliged  to  join  this  army  and  take  part  in 
the  defensive  wars,  that  alone  were  equitable  in  the  eyes  of  the  people. 
The  middle  classes  were  responsible  for  the  defense  of  the  cities. 

A  sharp  lookout  was  kept  on  the  accomplishment  of  this  duty. 
In  olden  times  the  defaulters  from  military  service  were  condemned 
to  death  and  their  property  was  confiscated,  but  the  law  of  1676  pro- 
scribed the  latter  punishment  and  in  pursuance  of  this  law  the  inher- 
itance of  all  defaulters  was  added  to  the  Treasury.  It  was  only  for 
very  serious  reasons  that  exemption  from  military  service  could  be 
secured,  and  then  only  on  the  authorization  of  the  Diet  The  mercen- 
aries, called  "foreign  troops",  played  a  secondary  role  to  the  "general 
call  to  arms". 

When,  in  the  XVII.  century,  the  whole  of  Europe  was  going 
through  a  military  reorganization,  forming  large  standing  armies,  ex- 
citedly reviving  the  art  of  strategy  and  of  tactics  and  scientifically 
improving  weapons  the  better  to  be  able  to  destroy  life,Poland  did  not 
allow  herself  to  be  drawn  along  in  that  current  but  contented  herself 
with  establishing  the  indispensable  garrisons  necessary  to  protect  her 
frontiers  and  persisted  in  not  maintaining  a  standing  army  in  times 
of  peace. 


^  Our  cultivated  and  gentle  manners  loath  cruelty,  our  very  nature  leans 
towards  humanity,  shrinks  from  ferocity.  (Sobieski:  "Les  Huguenots"). 

45 


The  nobility  fought  with  vehemence  against  the  estabUshment  of 
a  standing  army.  They  justly  saw,  that  as  they  had  not  the  spirit  of 
martial  conquest,  such  an  army  could  only  lead  to  a  form  of  absolute 
power.  N 

In  1788,  however,  because  of  the  aggressive  attitude  of  the 
neighboring  powers,  a  decision  was  finally  reached  by  the  Diet,  to 
raise  and  keep  under  arms  a  standing  army  of  100,000  men.  Kos- 
ciuszko,  the  greatest  strategist  of  contemporary  Poland,  in  a  memoire 
presented  to  the  Diet,  advised  the  organization  of  "militia",  similar 
to  the  organization  of  the  American  militia,  as  it  was  in  many  ways 
similar  to  the  Polish  "general  call  to  arms".  He  categorically  opposed 
the  formation  of  a  standing  army,  saying  that  it  would  "put  the  citi- 


zens in  irons". 


Notwithstanding  the  aversion  of  the  Poles  to  war  and  not- 
withstanding the  imperfections  and  gaps  in  the  system  of  the 
"general  call",  the  history  of  the  Polish  army  is  full  of  glorious 
achievements.  It  was  the  Polish  Knights  who  in  the  XV  century, 
after  a  long  series  of  terrible  struggles,  finally  broke  the  greatest 
military  power  of  contemporary  Europe:  the  Teutonic  Order,  that 
under  the  sign  of  the  Cross,  gave  themselves  up  to  plunder  and  ex- 
tortion. These  Knights  who  had  been  called  by  Conrad,  Prince  of 
Mazovia,  to  convert  the  still  pagan  Prussians,  established  themselves 
on  lands  given  them  by  this  Prince,  formed  themselves  little  by 
little  into  a  band  of  brigands  and  began  a  system  of  conquests  even 
against  their  ancient  benefactors,  the  Poles. 

Hardly  had  the  brilliant  victory  of  Grunwald  put  an  end  to  this 
pre-eminently  defensive  war  against  the  Teutonic  Order,  when  the 
Poles  were  obliged  to  turn  to  the  East,  where  the  Turks  were  men- 
acing Europe. 

Situated  on  the  Eastern  border  of  Europe,  Poland,  conscious  of 
fulfilling  her  historic  mission,  threw  herself  into  this  new  struggle, 
that  was  to  continue  for  more  than  two  centuries,  for  the  defense  of 
Christianity  and  Western  civilization. 

The  young  King  Ladislas  fell  in  the  battle  of  Varna  in  1444. 
From  then  on,  especially  after  the  fall  of  Hungary,  the  Polish 
Knights  became  imbued  with  the  idea  that  they  were  really  the  living 
rampart  chosen  "to  defend  the  Cross"  against  the  "fanatical  power  of 
the  Osmans".  The  task  was  brilliantly  accomplished  but  only  after 
the  most  terrible  struggles.  The  exploits  of  the  "winged  Hussars", 
the  flower  of  the  Polish  Army,  were  everywhere  celebrated.  From 
the  steppes  of  Bessarabia  and  Hungary,  even  as  far  as  the  Balkans, 

46 


the  ground  was  covered  with  the  graves  of  the  Polish  knights.  For 
generations  the  greatest  leaders  of  the  Polish  army  began  over  and 
over  again  this  traditional  struggle  and  not  only  did  they  take  part 
in  the  campaigns  but  they  gave  their  lives  as  well  on  the  battlefields. 
The  great  Hetman  Stephen  Zolkiewski,  the  "Knight  without  fear  and 
without  reproach",  perished  at  Cecora  in  1605.  It  was  his  great  grand- 
son, Jan  Sobieski,  who  finally  accomplished  the  destructon  of  the 
military  power  of  the  Turks. 

So,  even  with  their  aversion  to  war  and  notwithstanding  their 
"dulcis  sanguis",  the  Poles  were  equal  to  the  military  problems  of 
the  day.  Powerful  and  victorious,  Poland  used  her  strength  to  help 
her  neighbors,  not  to  overrun  and  pillage  them. 

She  was,  indeed,  the  rampart,  the  dike  that  protected  Europe. 
The  Poles  always  took  up  arms  for  ideals  of  which  they  were  con- 
scious and  which  they  represented  proudly. 

Customs  and  ceremonies,  both  characteristic  and  beautiful,  grew 
out  of  the  high  ideals  the  Poles  had  of  the  mission  of  their  armies.  He 
who  sacrificed  his  blood  and  his  life  for  his  faith  and  his  country 
was  rewarded  by  a  scarlet  coffin.  In  the  will  made  before  his  last  ex- 
pedition against  the  Turks,  Hetman  Zolkiewski  charged:  'Tf  I  fall  on 
the  field  of  honor  cover  not  my  coffin  with  black  velvet,  the  sign  of 
mournng,  but  cover  it  with  red,  the  sign  of  joy". 

In  pursuance  of  an  old  Polish  custom,  during  the  reading  of 
the  Scriptures  in  church,  every  Knight,  present,  rose  and  drew  his 
sword  in  sign  that  he  stood  ready  to  defend  his  faith  whenever 
threatened.  Faith  was  the  Poles  greatest  boon  at  that  time,  and  it 
was  such  lofty,  spiritual  motives  alone  that  had  power  to  arouse 
them  to  war. 

Long  ago  in  Poland,  war  depended  on  the  will  of  the  people, 
who  expressed  their  judgment  for  or  against  it  through  their  legally 
chosen  representatives.  The  Diet  alone  could  order  a  "general  call 
to  arms". 

"The  question  so  much  discussed  today,"  says  Professor  Stan- 
islas Kutrzeba,  "of  whether  the  people  as  a  whole  (through  their 
representatives)  should  be  allowed  to  decide  on  war  or  peace,  was 
settled  long  ago  by  the  Poles  in  the  affirmative  sense". 

"The  principle  according  to  which  a  people  should  have  the  right 
to  order  its  own  destiny  was  applied  in  Poland  during  a  long  period, 
even  at  the  time  when  the  absolute  European  monarchies  were  or- 
ganizing armies  that  were  forced  to  go  to  war  by  a  single  sign  from 
their  sovereign." 

47 


In  1496  the  "general  call  to  arms",  that  had  up  to  that  time 
depended  on  the  King  became  an  attribute  of  the  Diet.  After  1 573 — 
the  time  of  the  elaboraton  of  the  first  articles  and  pacts  that  were 
submitted  to  Henri  de  Valois — (before  his  election  to  the  Polish 
throne)  each  monarch  took  oath  not  to  declare  war  or  order  a  general 
call  without  the  authorization  of  the  Diet.  Thus  it  was  the  Diet 
alone  that  had  the  right  to  declare  war,  even  though  the  war  was  to 
be  fought  by  a  mercenary  army  paid  by  the  King.  Such  was  the 
principle  adopted  by  Polish  law  and  that  was  maintained  without 
fundamental  change  up  to  the  very  end  of  the  existence  of  the 
Republic. 

The  peoples  decision  acted  as  a  restraint  and  often  prevented 
conflicts.  This  check  was  all  the  more  powerful  because  of  the 
people's  repugnance  for  the  slaughter  of  war.  Poland  guided  by 
her  strict  moral  principles  held  back,  more  than  any  other  State,  from 
useless  bloodshed. 

Before  every  declaration  of  war  a  commission  was  named  in 
the  Diet  to  examine  into  the  more  or  less  unavoidable  character  of 
the  conflict,  of  the  possibility  of  a  peaceful  settlement  or  the  necessity 
to  fight,  and  finally  to  decide  on  the  legality  of  the  Polish  claims. 

This  idea  of  right  and  justice,  that  in  international  affairs  seem 
like  an  anomaly,  like  a  conception  of  another  world,  had  a  real 
value  in  the  political  life  of  the  Polish  State.  Considering  this  as 
"one  of  the  most  important  factors  of  life"  the  pedagogues  instilled 
it  into  the  minds  of  their  scholars,  with  the  first  rudiments  of 
the  education  that  was  to  form  their  character.  The  Statute  of  the 
National  Commission  of  Education,  of  1773,  charged  the  professors 
of  history  "never  to  call  heroism  or  politics  (the  science  of  govern- 
ment) that  which  was  only  cunning,  treason,  baseness,  violence, 
invasion  and  robbery" ! 

It  is  in  vain  that  we  look  for  another  such  official  educational 
recommendation,  not  only  in  those  times  but  even  today.  That 
declaration  was  the  result  of  the  very  high  level  at  which,  for  cen- 
turies, the  notions  of  social  life  had  been  held  in  Poland. 

Unfortunately  in  the  presence  of  the  general  militarism  of  Eu- 
rope and  the  rapacious  instincts  of  other  States,  this  high  moral 
level  of  Poland  brought  about  most  deplorable  consequences  for  her. 
That  Poland  was  right^ — the  Poland  that  had  shrunk  shuddering  be- 
fore the  growing  spectre  of  militarism, — that  her  principles  responded 
to  the  needs  of  civilization  and  not  to  those  that  permitted  the  tri- 

48 


umph  of  the  enemies  of  the  Repubhc,  has  been  superabundantly 
proven  by  the  fearful  conflict  of  today  into  which  "the  wise  and 
far-seeing  Europe"  allowed  herself  to  be  drawn. 


-o- 


X. 

POLAND  THE  LIBERATOR. 

THE  SPREADING  ABROAD  OF  LIBERTY. — THE  LITHUANIAN  NOBILITY  BEFORE 
AND  AFTER  THE  UNION  WITH  POLAND. — LADISLAS  IV.  AND  THE  CONSTITU- 
TION OF  MOSCOVY. — EMIGRATION  OF  THE  BOYARDS  INTO  POLAND. — THE  ROLE 
OF  THE  POLES  AFTER  THE  FALL  OF  STATE. — "FOR  YOUR  AND  OUR  LIBERTY." — 
ROLE  OF  POLAND  IN  THE  WARS  FOR  FREEDOM. — THE  UNIVERSALITY  OF  THE 

POLISH  QUESTION. 

Whenever  Poland,  during  her  long  historic  existence,  entered 
into  touch  with  other  peoples,  especially  those  that  were  weaker  or 
little  developed,  she  went  not  to  shakle  but  to  deliver  them,  not  to 
subdue  but  to  free  them. 

When,  in  1611  after  a  long  siege,  the  Polish  armies  entered 
Smolensk,  a  fortress  that  had  been  disputed  by  both  Poles  and 
Russians  for  a  long  time,  a  medal  was  struck  at  Warsaw  having  the 
following  elequent   inscription:   "Dum  vincor,   libror".      In   truth, 

Smolensk  retaken  by  the  Poles  was  able  to  benefit  once  more  by  the 
great  Polish  liberties.  Wherever  Poland  got  a  footing  it  was  always 
the  same,  freedom  was  spread  abroad  and  her  liberties  were  felt 
by  all.  The  justce  of  this  affirmation  is  seen  from  the  conditions 
under  which  all  the  unions  between  Poland  and  the  neighboring  coun- 
tries were  carried  through,  from  those  made  by  the  youthful  State 
of  the  Piasts  to  those  effected  by  the  powerful  monarchy  of  the 
Jagellons. 

The  "liberating"  character  of  the  Polish  expansion  was  effec- 
tively shown  when  the  nobility  of  the  Prussian  cities,  oppressed  by 
the  Teutonic  Order,  placed  themselves  under  the  protection  of 
Poland.  Another  proof  is  furnished  by  Livonia,  which  of  her  own 
free  will  joined  the  Polish  Republic. 

But  by  far  the  most  remarkable  testimony  of  the  attraction  of 
Polish  freedom  comes  from  Lithuania  and  Ruthenia.  These  two 
countries,  at  the  moment  of  their  union  with  Poland,  were  subject 
to  the  most  cruel  despotism  under  which  all  classes  of  the  population 

49 


were  weighed  down.  The  Grand  Duke,  landowner  of  his  State,  had 
unHmited  power.  The  Lithuanian  and  Ruthenian  boyards  ("bojary") 
could  no  more  than  a  simple  peasant  dispose  of  their  property  or 
their  family,  nor  could  they  even  marry  without  the  consent  of  their 
Prince. 

The  act  of  Union  signed  at  Horodlo,  in  1413,  sets  forth  in  a  very 
clear  and  concise  manner  that :  "the  bonds  of  slavery  that  bind  you 
shall  be  broken  and  the  fetters  shall  be  taken  from  you".  From  the 
first  connections  liberty  was  extended  by  Poland.  Under  the  in- 
fluences of  the  first  unions  absolute  power  was  greatly  restricted ;  the 
boyards  were  elevated  to  the  rank  of  the  Polish  knights,  individual 
rights  were  acquired,  the  right  also  to  dispose  of  property,  the  land — 
whose  use  had  depended  on  the  good  or  ill-will  of  the  Prince — be- 
came their  own  property.  Marriage  could  take  place  without  the 
authorization  of  the  Prince  and,  finally,  the  boyard  had  the  guarantee 
that  he  would  not  be  condemned  without  having  been  judged  ac- 
cording to  law.  Even  the  Oriental  slavery  endured  by  the  Lithuanian 
peasant  was  changed  into  the  moderated  Western  subjection  then 
recognized  in  Poland. 

The  infiltration  of  Polish  freedom  into  Lithuania  continued  for 
two  hundred  years.  It  was  paralleled  by  the  development  of  in- 
tellectual culture  of  which  the  principle  home  was  the  University  of 
Cracow.  Before  the  connections  of  the  two  States  had  become  firm 
enough  to  allow  of  the  real  union  of  1569,  a  phenomenon  of  assimila- 
tion and  political  kindredship  had  taken  place  between  the  internal 
organizations  of  the  two  countries. 

Much  before  the  time  of  the  memorable  "Diet  of  Lublin",  the 
Lithuanian  nobility  had  expressed  their  desire  for  this  definite  union, 
so  that  they  might  be  free  from  the  oligarchy  of  the  magnates  and 
come  into  full  possession  of  all  the  liberties  enjoyed  by  the  Polish 
nobility.  And  these  liberties  that  flowed  so  abundantly  into  the 
country,  formerly  subjected  to  despotism,  continued  there  up  to  the 
very  end  of  the  political  independence  of  the  Republic, 

Poland,  after  having  broken  the  bonds  of  absolutism  in  Lith- 
uania, extended  her  liberating  mission  farther  to  the  East — into 
Moscovy.  The  influence  of  Poland  on  Moscovy  began  toward  the 
end  of  the  XVL  century,  at  the  time  when  the  Poles,  going  more 
and  more  frequently  into  the  empire  of  the  Czars,  took  with  them 
their  notions  of  the  rights  of  the  citizens  and  of  constitutional  gov- 
ernment. "This  contact  with  the  Poles,"  writes  Prince  Peter 
Dolgorouky,  "showed  the  boyards  of  Moscow  to  what  a  humiliat- 

50 


ing  degree  of  slavery  they  were  lowered,  and  made  them  see  that 
in  allowing  themselves  to  become  the  plaything  of  their  monarchs, 
they  not  only  had  to  submit  to  tyranny  but  to  bodily  punishment  as 
well".* 

The  first  result  of  these  Polish-Moscovite  relations  was  an 
effort,  made  in  1605  to  introduce  into  Moscow  the  same  institutions 
that  existed  in  Poland  and  to  limit  the  absolute  power  of  the  Czar, 
Vladimir  Shuisky  (1605-1610).  This  Czar  was  required  to  swear 
solemnly  never  to  arbitrarily  confiscate  property  or  condemn  anyone 
to  death  without  judgment.  The  election  of  Ladislas,  the  son  of 
Sigismund  III.,  to  the  throne  of  Moscovy,  after  the  extinction  of  the 
Rurik  dynasty,  shows  tangibly  the  desire  of  the  Russians  to  enjoy 
the  same  liberties  as  then  existed  in  Poland. 

But  it  was  only  after  1610  that  the  ascendancy  of  the  Republic 
over  Moscovy  reached  its  culminating  point.  Under  the  influence  of 
the  Polish  political  ideas  and  systems,  Moscovy  formed  a  representa- 
tive organization  composed  of  two  chambers  (the  Duma  of  the  Boy- 
ards  and  the  Duma  of  the  Rurals)  without  the  sanction  of  which 
their  sovereigns,  just  as  in  Poland,  could  not  make  any  laws,  increase 
the  taxes,  sign  treaties  or  alliances,  nor  declare  war.  Moreover  the 
Czar  lost  the  right  of  suppression  by  capital  punishment,  of  confisca- 
tion of  property  without  lawful  judgment,  and  an  elective  legislative 
corps  was  organized.  A  convention  like  the  "pacta  conventa"  was 
passed  between  the  Czar  and  the  boyards. 

When  the  shortsighted  and  insincere  policies  of  Sigismund  III. 
kept  his  son  from  ascending  the  Moscovite  throne  the  boyards  put 
the  sceptre  into  the  hands  of  Michel  I.  Romanoff.  Then  profiting  by 
his  youth  the  boyards  forced  him  to  recognize  the  constitutional 
government.  This  regime,  however,  lasted  only  six  years  because, 
in  1618,  the  Metropolite  Filaret,  the  father  of  the  new  sovereign, 
released  from  captivity  in  Poland,  became  regent,  took  the  power 
from  the  hands  of  the  young  Michel  and  put  himself  at  the  head  of 
a  reactionar}'  government.  Thus  the  Constitution  that  had  hardly 
seen  the  light  of  day  came  to  an  end.  However,  up  to  the  reign  of 
Peter  the  Great,  the  "ukases"  still  bore  the  heading:  "By  order  of 
the  Czar  with  the  consent  of  the  boyards".  But  finally  when  Peter 
the  Great  came  to  the  throne  the  last  vestige  of  Russian  Constitu- 
tionalism imported  from  Poland  was  wiped  out. 

The  attraction  of  the  Polish  liberties  was  such  that  at  the  end 
of  the  XVI.  century,  one  year  after  the  "Union  of  Lublin",  the  in- 


*  Prince  Peter  Dolgarouky :  Truth  about  Russia.     Paris,  i860. 

51 


habitants  of  Novgorod  decided  to  separate  from  Moscovy  and  de- 
manded of  the  Republc  to  be  united  to  Lithuania.  But  this  design 
was  foiled  by  Ivan  the  Terrible  and  drowned  in  waves  of  blood. 
Ivan  could  not,  however,  stop  the  emigration  of  the  boyards  who,  one 
after  the  other,  crossed  the  frontier  into  Poland  never  to  return. 
"Like  birds  in  the  autumn,"  says  Professor  Waclaw  Sobieski, 
"the  boyards  fleeing  from  the  cold  north  sought  a  refuge  in  the 
country  of  freedom".*  Like  that  Prince  Kurbski,  who,  upon  his 
arrival  in  Cracow,  wrote  the  famous  letter  to  the  Czar  in  which 
he  cursed  the  tyrant  and  threatened  him  with  the  Divine  Wrath. 
Fifty  years  later  when  the  first  Romanofifs  ascended  the  throne 
and  the  reform  party  disappeared  under  the  oppression  of  the 
reactionaries,  many  more  boyards,  even  abandoning  their  fortunes, 
sought  refuge  in  Poland.  At  that  time  one  branch  of  the  family  of 
Prince  Soltykow  emigrated  into  Poland  and  later  gave  to  the  country 
eminent  patriots. 

Up  to  the  XVIII.  century,  every  attempt,  no  matter  how  modest, 
to  check  absolutism  was  inspired  by  Polish  institutions  alone.  Later 
they  were  inspired  by  the  great  French  revolution.  The  conception 
of  liberty,  principal  factor  of  political  evolution,  continued  to  spread 
among  foreign  peoples  even  after  the  downfall  of  the  Republic. 
During  the  whole  of  the  XIX  century  the  Poles  struggled  on,  at  one 
time  stirring  up  revolutionary  currents  and  at  another  time  offer- 
ing their  services  to  those  who  rose  up  against  absolutism.  But  it 
was  chiefly  at  home,  among  themselves,  that  they  rose  up  against  the 
detested  despotism,  at  home  that  they  incited  a  series  of  bloody  in- 
surrections to  overthrow  the  tyrants  who  were  oppressing  them. 

Notwithstanding  their  profound  scorn  for  their  persecutors  they 
still  felt  some  pity  for  them  as  well,  because  they  considered  them 
slaves  blindly  obedient  to  the  conquering  folly  of  their  governments. 
In  1 83 1  the  Polish  soldiers  inscribed  on  their  standards  the  watch- 
word "for  your  and  our  liberty",  watchword  that  reflected  all  the 
greaness  of  soul  of  historic  Poland — that  saw  before  all  else,  in 
each  enemy,  a  miserable  and  degraded  brother,  and  had  only  one 
desire :  to  lift  him  again  to  human  dignity. 

The  Poles  always  joined  the  problem  of  their  liberty  with  the 
liberty  of  the  world ;  struggling  against  the  oppression  in  their  own 
country  they  felt  themselves  to  be  struggling  at  the  same  time  for  the 
happiness  of  other  peoples  and  in  fighting  against  despotism  in  any 

*  Waclaw  Sobieski :  The  King  and  the  Czar. 

52 


part  of  the  world  they  felt  they  were  struggling  indirectly  for  the 
freeing  of  their  own  beloved  Poland. 

Every  generation,  since  the  partition  of  Poland,  held  to  this  tra- 
dition that  started  at  the  end  of  the  XVIII.  cenury.  This  inspired 
the  two  national  heroes,  Kosciuszko  and  Pulaski,  when  they  offered 
their  services  to  the  starred  flag  of  America.  Pulaski  fell  on  the 
battle  field  in  America,  Kosciuszko,  after  having  rendered  great 
services  to  the  young  American  Republic,  openly  espoused,  with 
Jefferson  and  Franklin  the  cause  of  the  freedom  of  the  slaves,  to 
which  Washington  was  opposed.  Many  Poles  enrolled  under  the 
standards  of  Napoleon,  proudly  choosing  the  motto:  "Gli  Uomini 
Liberi  son  Fratelli"  (all  free  men  are  brothers). 

The  Polish  political  emigrants  of  1831  stimulated  in  their  turn 
the  activity  of  "young  Europe".  The  years  1831  and  1848  saw  Polish 
emigrants  at  every  barricade  and  on  every  battle-field  where  inde- 
pendence was  being  fought  for.  These  "Condottieri"  of  liberty,  as 
the  reactionaries  disdainfully  called  them,  went — soldiers,  officers  or  ^ 

generals — to  fight  in  Italy,  Hungary,  in  Germany  and  in  Austria. 
It  was  the  Polish  General  Miroslawski  who  put  himself  at  the  head 
of  the  insurrection  in  Baden  and  in  Sicily ;  it  was  the  Polish  General 
Chrzanowski  who  commanded  the  army  of  Sardinia  in  Italy ;  it  was 
the  great  poet,  Adam  Mickiewicz,  who  went  to  Milan  with  the 
Legion  that  he  himself  had  formed  to  keep  up  the  struggle  to  free  all 
peoples.  His  watchword  was  only  the  extension  of  Christian  prin- 
ciples from  individual  life  to  the  life  of  nations.  Among  the  Gari- 
baldians  there  were  also  many  Poles.  At  the  head  of  the  Vienna 
revolution  was  the  Polish  General  Bem.  Polish  statesmen,  Smolka 
and  Goluchowski,  soon  opened  the  Constitutional  Era.  There  were 
thousands  of  Poles  enlisted  in  the  revolutionary  army  of  Hungary ; 
General  Dembinski  was  twice  named  "General-in-Chief"  of  these 
armies ;  another  General,  Wysocki,  commanded  a  Polish  legion  and 
both  he  and  General  Bem  covered  themselves  with  glory  in  Transyl- 
vania. The  Poles  continued  to  fight  although  the  Hungarians  had 
lost  all  hope  of  victory. 

In  Ukraina  the  Polish  insurrectionists,  in  1863— noblemen 
mostly — proclaimed  the  "golden  act"  by  freeing  the  Ruthenian 
peasants,  although  it  was  against  the  interests  of  the  Polish  agri- 
culturists of  the  country.  The  same  thing  took  place  in  Lithuania. 
Thus  it  was  that  the  defenders  of  Europe  against  Eastern  barbarism 
became  after  the  downfall  of  their  State,  the  champions  of  World- 
liberty.     It  was  often  at  the  price  of  Polish  blood  that  the  rights 

53 


enjoyed  today  by  free  people,  endowed  with  constitutional  govern- 
ments, were  bought. 

The  political  ideal,  that  emanated  from  subjected  Poland  and 
from  her  sons  dispersed  in  foreign  lands,  explains  why  the  Polish 
question,  toward  the  middle  of  the  XIX.  century,  took  on  its  "char- 
acter of  universality".  At  that  time  young  Europe  began  to  see  in  the 
solution  of  this  question  the  conditions  of  a  general  victory  for 
liberty.  The  genius  of  the  French  people  vividly  felt  the  importance 
of  this  question  and,  after,  1831,  for  thirty  years  never  left  off  by 
writings,  by  parliamentary  discussions  and  by  public  manifestations, 
to  push  the  war  for  Poland's  freedom. 

This  popular,  universal,  political  current  in  favor  of  the  "Polish 
Cause",  identified  at  the  same  time  with  all  peoples,  led  the  popu- 
lation of  Berlin,  in  1848,  amid  the  greatest  enthusiasm  to  carry  the 
Polish  patriots  in  triumph  to  the  Royal  Palace.  The  people  of  Europe, 
at  that  moment  when  their  moral  level  was  exalted  to  unknown 
heights,  bowed  before  the  spiritual  force  of  this  disowned  and  per- 
secuted Poland. 

Under  the  Empire  the  indescribable  sufferings  inflicted  on 
Poland,  and  on  the  Polish  soul,  found  a  new  force  of  resistance:  it 
was  the  "ideal-force  of  the  mystic  conception  that  made  of  Poland 
the  Christ  of  peoples,  suffering  as  He  suffered,  for  the  salvation  of 
humanity".  This  state  of  mind  marked  all  the  work  of  Poland's 
greatest  romantic  poets,  Mickiewicz,  Slowacki  and  Krasinski,  mag- 
nificent work,  with  an  extraordinary  power  of  inspiration,  born 
from  the  sufferings  of  their  native  country  during  the  epoch  of 
emigration. 

This  mission  of  liberators,  that  the  Poles  espoused,  had  its  roots 
far  back  in  the  past.  It  was  the  logical  consequence  of  the  spiritual 
evolution  of  the  old  Republic,  the  result  of  the  same  spirit  that  in 
the  olden  time  united  "equals  with  equals  and  free  with  free". 
Guided  by  this  motto,  until  then  unknown,  the  Poles  went  into  Lith- 
uania and  Ruthenia  and  thus  realized  in  Eastern  Europe,  with  extra- 
ordinary ease,  their  national  ideal  of  social  organization. 


-o- 


54 


XL 

POLAND  IN  ADVANCE  OF  CONTINENTAL  EUROPE. 

THE  TREND  OF  POLITICAL  DEVELOPMENT  IN  POLAND. — ABSOLUTISM  IN  EU- 
ROPE AND  CIVIL  RIGHTS  IN  POLAND. — "rEGNA  SED  NON  IMPERA". — RESTRIC- 
TION OF  THE  PRIVILEGES  OF  THE  NOBILITY,  ACCOMPLISHED  BY  THE  NOBLES 
THEMSELVES. — REVISION  OF  THE  CONSTITUTION. — THE  FEDERAL  STATE. — 
ACCOMPLISHMENT  OF  REFORMS  WITHOUT  REVOLUTION. — MORAL  MATURITY. 

In  its  development  Poland  was  in  advance  of  continental  Europe 
in  many  ways  and  by  many  years — centuries  even.  That  which 
other  peoples  did  not  demand  of  their  governments  until  the  XIX. 
century,  the  Republic  had  centuries  before  instituted  and  guaranteed 
by  laws. 

It  was  especially  in  the  development  of  political  rights  that  Po- 
land was  in  advance  of  the  other  continental  European  States.  Be- 
tween the  State  as  it  was  constituted  in  the  middle  ages  and  the 
modern  constitutional  State,  the  annals  of  Poland  did  not  have  to 
record  the  existence  of  that  somber  link  called  "enlightened 
absolutism". 

The  transition  from  the  medieval  organization  into  the  modem 
parliamentary  State  was  brought  about  with  astonishing  rapidity  in 
Poland.  A  few  decades  sufficed,  while  the  rest  of  Europe  took  sev- 
eral centuries  to  attain  the  same  end.  Professor  Stanislas  Kutrzeba 
states  that,  in  this  respect,  the  progress  of  Polish  development  was 
far  more  logical  than  that  of  the  West.  The  evolution  of  the 
Polish  Republic  was  in  fact  always  characterized  by  a  preponderance 
— that  became  more  and  more  marked — of  popular  elements,  which 
from  the  middle  ages  on  sought  power,  and  not  without  success ; 
while,  in  the  meantime,  in  Western  Europe  these  popular  elements 
were  crushed  by  their  respective  monarchistic  powers.  As  a  result, 
there  is  a  deviation  in  the  curve  of  the  political  development  in 
a  contrary  direction  to  that  which  it  seemed  to  have  taken  at  the 
beginning ;  while  in  Poland,  on  the  contrary,  evolution  continued  to 
follow  the  straight  line — the  line  first  laid  down.  Thus,  Poland  was 
able  to  keep  ahead  of  all  the  contemporary  European  States  by  her 
organic  structure — based  on  the  union  of  monarchistic  power  and 
the  Diet — union  that  remains  today  one  of  the  most  essential  and 
valuable  traits  of  the  modern  State. 

When  Europe  had  definitely  entered  into  the  period  of  absolut- 
ism, when  the  people  had  become  the  humble  slaves  of  one  master, 

55 


Poland  was  creating  for  herself  institutions  that  guaranteed  civic 
liberty,  was  developing  a  parliamentary  system  and  improving  her 
Diet  that  would  soon  be  able  to  take  over  the  greatest  part  of  the 
power. 

Toward  the  XVIII.  century,  when  a  serious  need  of  reforms 
began  to  be  felt,  a  Polish  citizen,  Wielhorski,  applied  to  J.  J.  Rous- 
seau asking  his  advice  on  reforms  for  the  Republic.  Rousseau 
answered  the  question  by  a  long  treatise  *  in  which  he  demonstrated 
that  the  Polish  organization  was,  on  principle,  excellent,  and  "worth 
more  than  that  of  Great  Britain".  i 

This  is  what  von  Rotteck,  a  German  historian  of  Freiburg,  says 
in  his  "General  History"  about  "enlightened  absolutism" :  "At  that 
epoch  science  was  the  servant  of  despotism.  With  the  exception  of 
a  few  Republics,  the  pople  were  everywhere  treated  like  flocks  of 
sheep,  and,  in  fact,  it  amounted  to  that  in  those  countries  where  the 
will  of  the  monarch  was  supreme  and  the  sole  aim  was  to  satisfy  the 
unlimited  cupidity  of  princely  families.  At  that  time  the  greatest 
virtue  was  obedience".  How  much  more  advanced  was  the  situation 
of  Poland  in  the  same  epoch ! 

The  security  of  individual  liberty  was  protected  by  law.  In 
this  respect  Poland  was  even  ahead  of  the  country  classic  for  its 
individual  freedom — England;  for  the  Polish  law  "Neminem  cap- 
tivabimus"  prescribing  that  no  arrest  could  be  made  without  proof 
of  the  guilt  of  the  accused  was  enacted  in  1430,  that  is  to  say,  two 
and  a  half  centuries  before  the  famous  "Habeas  Corpus  Act  of  1679. 
As  has  been  stated  before,  the  principle  of  the  publicity  of  debates — 
for  the  accusation  as  well  as  for  the  defense — was  also  known  in 
Polish  jurisdiction,  a  principle  that  existed  nowhere  else,  except  in 
England  at  that  period.  The  people,  through  their  representatives, 
decided  the  most  important  affairs  of  State,  not  excepting  those  rela- 
tive to  peace  and  war.  The  essentially  republican  form  of  government 
even  placed  the  people  in  a  position  to  elect  the  head  of  the  State  and 
gave  to  each  citizen  the  possibility  of  one  day  becoming  himself  the 
King-President  of  the  Republic. 

The  fundamental  constitutional  principles  of  the  Republic,  such 
as  the  law  "nihil  novi",  the  "pacta  conventa"  and  the  articles  "non 
praestanda  oboedientia",  were  inspired  by  the  really  modem  concep- 
tion that  the  King  lived  for  the  nation  and  not  the  nation  for  the 
King.  The  famous  principle  expressed  by  Thiers  in  1831 :  "the  King 
reigns  but  does  not  govern",   for  which  the  political  science   of 


*J.  J.  Rousseau:  Considerations  on  the  Polish  Government. 

56 


today  prides  itself,  had  already  been  laid  down  by  the  Polish  poli- 
ticians in  1607,  two  centuries  before  Thiers,  in  the  same  identical 
terms:  "regna  sed  non  impera". 

With  such  institutions  and  such  ideas  there  is  nothing  astonish- 
ing in  the  fact  that  Poland  was  able  to  leave  the  European  States  of 
her  time  far  behind  her,  the  epoch  of  which  Rotteck  says :  "the  peo- 
ple were  considered  as  herds  of  cattle,  and  the  King's  word  was  all. 
It  is  true  that  by  these  liberties,  created  in  the  XVI.  century  and 
continued  through  the  XVII.  and  XVIII.  centuries,  only  one  class 
benefited,  but  that  class  numbered  a  million  souls.  On  the  other 
hand,  toward  the  end  of  the  XVIII.  century,  Poland,  again  in 
advance  of  the  greater  part  of  Europe,  undertook  and  brought  to 
a  successful  end  a  great  political  reform  and,  although  based  on  the 
already  existing  State  organization,  it  ended  the  exclusive  privileges 
of  the  nobility  by  extending  the  civic  rights  to  other  classes  of  the 
population,  and  adopted,  at  the  same  time,  liberal  institutions,  fulfill- 
ing the  ideas  and  requirements  of  the  time. 

This  reform  was  the  memorable  Constitution  of  the  3rd  of 
May,  1 79 1. 

Adhering  to  the  spirit  of  Polish  traditions,  the  law  of  May  3rd 
was  based  on  the  principle  that  "in  human  society  all  power  springs 
from  the  will  of  the  people".  The  application  of  this  political  con- 
conception  resulted  in  the  creation  of  a  Ministry  responsible  to  the 
Diet.  From  then  on,  when  laws  were  broken,  the  Diet  could  accuse 
the  Ministry  and  when  the  representatives  and  the  government  dis- 
agreed, the  Diet  could  demand  the  dismission  of  the  Ministry  pro- 
viding that  the  majority  of  the  opposition  amounted  to  two-thirds 
of  the  representative  body.  Thus  Poland,  at  that  time,  applied  the 
principle  that  is  still  today  unrecognized  in  some  constitutional 
States :  that  the  government  cannot  exercise  its  power  unless  it  is 
upheld  by  the  parliamentary  majority  of  the  representative  body. 

From  the  social  and  political  point  of  view,  the  Polish  constitu- 
tion of  1 79 1  took  from  the  nobility  the  greater  part  of  their  privileges ; 
at  the  samel  time  itenlarged  this  class  by  admitting  into  it  newelements 
of  society.  The  right  of  ennoblement  was,  one  may  say,  automatic- 
ally acquired  by  all  those  who  paid  a  certain  minimum  of  land  tax, 
and  to  officers  and  certain  categories  of  officials.  Besides,  each  Diet 
was  obliged  to  ennoble  a  certain  number  of  the  middle  class  who  had 
distinguished  themselves  in  different  domains,  especially  commerce 
and  industry.  The  old  conception  of  nobility  was  quite  abolished  and 
every  citizen  having  a  certain  social  standing  was  eligible  to  nobility. 

57 


The  nobility  was  thus  transformed  into  a  republican  middle  class  in 
the  largest  sense  of  the  word,  and  the  remarkable  perspective  opened 
of  the  gradual  ennoblement  of  all  the  people. 

The  middle  classes  of  the  cities,  as  a  whole,  were  what  might  be 
called  half  ennobled :  they  were  given  the  right  of  "neminem  capti- 
vabimus",  access  to  all  civil  and  military  honors,  a  large  autonomy, 
the  right  to  become  landowners — a  concession  made  only  in  1807,  or 
sixteen  years  later  in  Prussia — and  lastly,  greater  access  to  the  Diet. 
From  then  on  all  work,  no  matter  whether  carried  on  in  the  cities  or 
in  the  fields,  had  the  right  to  the  same  respect.  In  sign  of  fraternity 
the  greatest  dignitaries  allowed  their  names  to  be  inscribed  in  the 
municipal  registers. 

Lastly,  the  peasant  class,  named  in  one  of  the  articles  of  the 
new  code  as  "the  most  valiant  force  of  the  country"  were  taken  under 
the  protection  of  the  law.  Although  the  situation  of  the  middle 
classes  and  the  peasants  was  far  from  perfect,  the  reformers  did  not 
go  farther,  convinced  with  reason  that  to  become  lasting,  reforms 
should  progress  slowly.  It  should  be  noted  that  this  constitution, 
all  to  the  disadvantage  of  the  nobles,  was  framed  by  a  Diet  made 
up  exclusively  of  the  nobility  and  without  any  compulsion  from 
the  other  less  favored  classes. 

The  remarkable  characteristic  of  this  Constitution  was  that  the 
new  reforms  were  intended  for  the  present  generation  only.  Al- 
though they  were  greatly  in  advance  of  their  times,  these  laws  had 
not  been  elaborated  to  become  enduring  but  were  only  to  serve 
as  steps  to  the  future  development  of  the  country.  Recognizing  the 
necessity  to  revise  this  Constitution,  "after  having  judged  its 
effects  upon  public  prosperity",  it  was  decided  that  a  special  Diet 
should  meet  every  twenty-five  years  and  proceed  with  the  revision  of 
the  laws.  The  deep  wisdom  of  the  authors  of  those  reforms  of 
May  3rd  was  manifested  in  a  striking  manner  by  the  additional  law 
that  ordered  the  following  generation  to  adapt  the  organization  of  the 
State  to  the  new  ideas  and  new  exigencies.  The  application  of  this 
law  would  have  been  a  powerful  help  to  the  Polish  people  toward 
reaching  their  ideal  of  liberty.  And  that  liberty  would  eventually 
have  been  extended  to  all  classes,  if  the  partitions  had  not  put  a  brutal 
end  of  this  evolution. 

By  this  Constitution  of  May  3rd,  1791,  as  by  all  her  previous 
evolution,  Poland,  as  we  have  seen,  was  in  advance  of  a  number 
of  the  great  European  peoples  that  were  subject  to  autocratic  gov- 
ernments.    Even  more,  because  of  this  wise  legislation  that  pre- 

58 


scribed  periodic  revisions  of  the  Constitution,  the  Polish  Republic 
was  in  advance  of  many  States  of  even  the  present  day. 

In  a  second  domain,  we  see  yet  again  the  superiority  of  the 
Polish  political  genius  in  comparison  to  that  of  other  continental 
European  States.  It  was  their  skill  in  organizing  the  life  of  the 
different  peoples  making  up  the  Republic.  Several  centuries  before 
the  creation  of  the  American  union — a  model  of  political  organiza- 
tion uniting,  for  the  common  good,  elements  of  different  origin  and 
culture — Poland  created  a  great  Federation  of  peoples  in  Europe. 

The  unions  with  Lithuania,  Ruthenia,  the  Prussia  of  Dantzig 
and  Livonia  transformed  the  small  State  of  the  Piasts  into  a  great 
Federal  Power,  Although  each  of  these  peoples  were  possessed  of 
the  strictest  autonomy,  although  they  were  united  only  by  the  two 
central  organs — the  Diet  and  the  King — their  cohesion  was  such 
that  even  the  downfall  of  the  Republic  did  not  destroy  it.  And  the 
political  work  accomplished  by  Poland  remains  unequaled,  even  up 
to  the  present  time. 

Quite  incomparable  also  were  the  means  used  by  the  State  to 
reach  the  goal  she  had  in  view.  The  two  fundamental  reforms — 
the  law  of  15 15  "nihil  novi",  that  was  the  starting  point  of  the  par- 
liamentary and  political  liberties  and  the  Constitution  of  May  3rd, 
1791,  that  adapted  these  liberties  to  the  needs  of  the  time — were 
realized  without  any  revolutionary  disturbance  and  without  the 
shedding  of  one  drop  of  blood.  "That  which  other  people,"  said 
Stephen  Buszczynski,  "had  aspired  after  through  long  centuries,  and 
had  only  reached  through  blood  and  massacres,  regicides  and  scaf- 
folds, the  Polish  people  had  won  and  held  by  legal  means  and  in 
all  tranquility".  And  even  thus,  by  way  of  peaceful  evolu- 
tion and  through  the  wisdom  of  her  statesmen  and  the  attraction  of 
her  political  freedom,  these  different  unions  were  accomplished:  the 
federation  of  several  peoples  without  the  help  of  sword  or  diplomatic 
cunning.  The  superiority  of  this  method  of  political  construction 
was  on  a  par  with  the  moral  superiority  of  the  Poles  over  their 
neighbors  near  and  far. 

The  State  that  instructed  its  youth  that  politics  was  not  synon- 
omous  with  cunning,  treachery  or  violence,  that,  notwithstanding 
the  prevailing  preponderance  of  rapacious  instincts,  avoided  wars 
of  conquest  on  principle,  that  examined  into  the  justice  of  each  war, 
that  in  the  midst  of  general  fanaticism  was  the  only  example  of 
religious  toleration  in  Europe,  that  could  not  persecute  people  for 
their  faith  or  their  origin,  that  had  never  assassinated  their  Kings 

59 


but  who  did  not  allow  their  Kings  to  murder  their  subjects,  that 
attached  more  importance  to  the  renown  of  their  laws  than  to  the 
Crown,  that  loathed  all  extortion,  and  that  gave  freedom  to  the  neigh- 
boring peoples — such  a  State  was  morally,  incontestably,  in  advance 
of  the  Europe  of  yesterday,  and  of  the  Europe  of  today,  by  the 
whole  length  of  her  historic  existence. 


-o- 


XII. 

THE  DOWNFALL  OF  THE  POLISH  STATE. 

INQUIRIES   INTO  THE  CAUSE  OF  THE  DOWNFALL. — ANARCHY  AND   ABSENCE 

OF    JUSTICE,   "vital    INCAPACITY"    CREATING    A     MODEL    CONSTITUTIONAL 

STATE. — FOR     WHOM     DID     POLISH     ANARCHY     CONSTITUTE     A     DANGER? — 

POLAND     VICTIM     OF     PHYSICAL     VIOLENCE. 

The  Polish  State  had  come  to  an  end.  For  people  who  judge 
principles  and  acts  by  their  immediate  success,  this  fact  was  suffi- 
cient to  disprove  the  course  by  which  the  development  of  Poland  had 
been  accomplished. 

"But  it  is  not  the  hand  of  man  that  regulates  the  clock  of  his- 
tory" ....  The  political  organization  that  during  long  centuries  was 
a  source  of  prosperity  and  high  culture  to  a  great  people,  the  genius 
of  Polish  history,  that  inspired  entire  generations  with  ardent  patri- 
otism, by  inciting  them  to  resist  heroically  every  persecution  and  all 
suffering,  the  ideal,  so  profoundly  human,  of  freedom  and  of  dignity 
toward  which  the  efforts  of  all  nations  tend,  no !  that  could  not  have 
been  the  cause  of  all  the  suffering  and  misfortune  that  fell  on  Poland. 

Today  the  Polish  people  believe,  as  Buszczynski  said,  "that  their 
role  among  nations  is  only  interrupted — not  ended". 

The  events  that  brought  about  the  downfall  of  the  Polish  State 
have  been  the  subject  of  a  great  many  learned  discussions.  The 
authors  of  the  partitions  were  the  first  to  feverishly  seek  after  these 
causes.  The  greatest  faith  was  put  in  a  thesis  that  was  zealously 
pushed  forward  for  a  long  time  and  that  even  at  the  present  day  is 
still  in  circulation,  like  the  proverbial  "bad  coin",  in  the  mist  of  opin- 
ions. This  is  the  thesis  of  the  official  Russian  historiographers  who 
pretended  that  Poland  fell  because  of  anarchy  and  of  "internal  in- 
capacity" to  live  as  a  State.    This  story  forged  by  perfidy  and  car- 

60 


ried  on  by  stupidity  has,  in  the  course  of  time,  taken  on  the  character 
of  an  accusation  pronounced  from  the  height  of  a  would-be  his- 
torical tribunal. 

But  who  are  they,  that  feel  thus  warranted  to  accuse  the  past 
of  Poland  of  anarchy  ?  Even  those  in  whose  countries  for  centuries 
no  laws  existed  and  who  a  hundred-fold  more  than  "the  Polish  an- 
archy", should  be  subject  to  the  severe  judgment  of  history. 

At  the  most  unfortunate  period  of  Polish  evoluion — during  the 
reign  of  the  Wettin  dynasty  of  Saxony — the  existence  of  an  execu- 
tive power,  strong  enough  to  enforce  the  strict  application  of  the  laws 
was  lacking,  but  the  laws  themselves  never  fell  into  disuse  and  never 
lost  their  force.  At  the  same  period  Russia  had  no  notion  of  law. 
The  least  sign  or  desire  of  their  sovereigns  became  law  even  when 
these  signs  came  from  a  bloody  maniac  like  Ivan  the  Terrible,  or 
strumpets  like  Catherine  II.  of  Anhalt-Zerbst. 

And  who  is  it  that  speaks  thus  of  our  "incapacity  to  live?"  Even 
those  whose  vitality  was  manifested  by  spoilation  and  rapine  and  the 
humility  of  dogs  under  the  lash.  It  is  a  shameless  lie  to  assert  that 
vitality  is  synonymous  with  slave-servility  and  rapacious  instincts. 
It  will  be  enough  to  cite  two  facts  to  invalidate  such  accusations. 

The  final  organization  of  the  Republic  was  maintained  through 
three  centuries;  in  consequence,  it  must  have  possessed  a  certain 
vitality,  especially  since  it  was  supported  in  a  very  slight  degree 
only,  by  the  restraint  exercised  by  the  State.  The  second  and  third 
partitions  of  Poland  went  into  efifect  at  a  time  when  Poland  adapting 
herself  to  the  new  ideas  and  needs  of  the  time  had  instituted  the 
reforms  of  May  3rd,  1791 — at  a  time  when  by  its  organization  and 
laws  it  could  be  called  a  model  State.  This  testifies  in  a  striking 
manner  that  Poland  was  capable  of  development. 

Anarchy  was  one  of  the  causes  of  our  downfall  but  not  the 
anarchy  generally  understood  as  such.  The  nature  of  the  Polish 
Constitution  that  had  become  changed  and  degenerated  through  the 
course  of  time  still,  however,  had  a  foundation  of  sound  and  fertile 
ideas  even  at  the  time  of  the  worst  disorders  (for  example,  the 
exaggerated  conception  of  individual  rights  carried  to  the  extreme 
in  the  "liberum  veto").  Now,  these  ideas  of  freedom  carried  over 
the  frontiers  might  have  become  dangerous  to  the  absolutism  that 
reigned  abroad. 

"Is  it  necessary  to  search  farther  for  the  cause  of  the  partitions 
of  Poland?"  asks,  with  reason,  Buszczynski,  "this  great  country, 
truly  democratic  was  an  anomaly  among  neighboring  dynastic  states. 

61 

r 


Poland,  notwithstanding  her  decline  and  although  apparently  in  her 
death  struggle,  showed  at  least  as  strong  a  vitality  as  the  European 
monarchies,  with  all  their  martial  uproar  and  the  magnificence  of 
their  courts.  Everywhere  in  Europe  the  people  were  only  things — 
the  blind  instruments  of  him  who  was  strongest  and  the  most  clever. 
While  in  Poland  the  people  had  never  been  slaves  to  their  Kings," 

The  neighboring  powers  saw  in  the  Constitution  of  the  Republic 
(especially  in  the  reforms  of  May,  1791)  a  dangerous  example  for 
their  "subjects"  forced  to  blind  obedience.  And  the  more  it  was 
feared,  Polish  Jacobism  was  all  the  more  open  to  criticism.  Autoc- 
racy, that  had  already  been  sapped  by  France,  would  continue  to 
run  the  risk  of  being  threatened  by  Poland,  if  her  re-establishment 
was  not  opposed.  This  danger  had  to  be  eliminated  at  all  costs. 
Hence  the  partitions. 

Poland  fell  because  she  was  not  in  unison  with  her  neighbors, 
and  because,  instead  of  restraining  her  citizens,  she  enlarged  their  . 
rights.  Poland  fell  guilty  of  having  a  political  organization  more  .>,^ 
liberal,  more  developed,  more  perfect,  than  the  neighboring  powers. 
This  was  the  "primary  cause"  of  her  disappearance  from  the  map 
of  Europe.  But  on  the  other  hand,  her  downfall  was  brought  about 
by  the  terrible  ring  encircling  her,  that  hemmed  her  in  and  against 
which  she  was  powerless  to  struggle, 

A  great  people — a  people  who  had  rendered  immense  service 
to  civilization — that  had  never  cherished  hostile  sentiments  against 
anyone  was  surrounded  in  the  very  center  of  Europe,  and  hunted 
like  a  beast.    A  thing  without  precedent  in  the  history  of  peoples. 

An  examination  of  this  unheard  of  situation  leaves  room,  doubt- 
less, for  the  critic  to  blame  Polish  politicians  who  were  unable  to 
draw  the  country  from  this  trap  by  improving  the  diplomatic  situa- 
tion of  the  country.  But  to  the  critic  one  may  reply  by  bringing  to 
mind  the  existence  of  the  alliance  made  in  1791  by  Poland  with  the 
Western  Powers  and  which  was  cynically  and  ruthlessly  broken  and 
trampled  upon  by  them,  Poland  was  confronted  by  a  formidable 
plot  and  succumbed  to  the  preponderant  force  of  the  three  neigh- 
boring powers — victim  of  physical  violence  she  fell  as  Prussia  fell, 
under  exactly  the  same  circumstances,  after  the  battle  of  Jena. 
Prussia,  however,  was  a  completely  "  militarized"  State. 


-o- 


62 


XIII. 

THE    SIGNIFICANCE    OF    POLISH    HISTORY    AT    THE 

PRESENT   TIME. 

THE  RESULTS  OF  THE  PARTITION  OF  POLAND. — DESTRUCTION  OF  EQUILIB- 
RUM. — THE  DOWNFALL  OF  POLAND  AND  ITS  RELATION  TO  THE  PRESENT 
DAY. — POPULARIZATION  OF  THE  IDEA  OF  VIOLENCE. — DEVELOPMENT  OF  MIL- 
ITARISM.— THE  W^ORLD  WAR. — THE  REPRESSION  OF  THE  INDIVIDUAL. — 
HISTORICAL   POLAND   AND  CONTEMPORARY    EUROPE. 

Poland  was  strack  from  the  map  of  Europe.  This  violent  sup- 
pression of  a  great  State,  full  of  vitality,  whose  only  aspiration  was 
toward  development,  had  ill-fated  consequences  for  the  whole  sys- 
tem of  European  connections. 

In  a  note  to  Metternich,  in  1814,  Talleyrand  expressed  the  opin- 
ion that  the  dismemberment  of  Poland  was  the  cause  of  all  the  com- 
motion that  followed  in  Europe.  Von  Rotteck,  that  remarkable  Ger- 
man historian  already  quoted,  wrote  ninety  years  ago: 

"The  downfall  of  Poland  proclaimed  in  a  voice  of  thunder  the 
total  overthrow  of  European  equilibrum,  the  victorious  reign  of 
violence  and  the  utter  destruction  of  international  rights."  Ac- 
cording to  the  profound  words  of  Johann  von  Muller:  "God  would 
reveal  the  moral  value  of  the  powers  of  the  world;  a  somber  fu- 
ture appeared  to  thinkers,  showing  them  the  advent  of  infinite  dis- 
tress and  the  prospect  of  appalling  consternation,  needful  for  the  re- 
establishment  of  right  and  justice."  Today,  these  prophetic  words 
have  found  their  terrible  confirmation. 

For  minds  that  see  into  the  heart  of  things  it  is  evident  that 
between  the  great  international  crime  of  the  partitions  of  Poland  and 
the  monstrous  conflict  of  today,  there  is  the  undeniable  relation  of 
cause  and  effect.  Lord  Eversley  states  in  his  recently  published 
book  *  that  the  partitions  of  Poland,  although  remote  and  indirect, 
are  the  essential  cause  of  the  great  World  War.  The  crimes  com- 
mitted against  Poland,  the  tortures  that  were  systematically  inflicted 
upon  her,  have  had  disastrous  consequences  on  the  Europe  of  the 
XIX.  and  XX.  centuries. 

When  the  autocratic  powers  combined  against  the  French  Revo- 
lution, Poland  was  no  longer  able  to  go  to  the  aid  of  the  French, 
although  her  traditional  love  of  liberty,  her  republican  and  demo- 
cratic organization,  her  cult  for  the  rights  of  the  individual  and  the 


*  The  Partition  of  Poland. 

63 


sovereignty  of  the  people  responded  to  the  ideas  proclaimed  by 
Revolutionary  France. 

Napoleon,  who  changed  the  nature  of  the  ideals  of  the  Revo- 
lution but  adopted  their  principles  and  spread  them  broadcast  over 
Europe,  admitted  in  his  "memoires"  that  his  greatest  error  was  in 
not  hnving  revived  Poland.  After  the  fall  of  Napoleon  the  authors 
of  the  partitions  laid  at  the  Congress  of  Vienna  the  base  of  the 
"Holy  Alliance",  that  was  for  thirty  years  to  smother  every  liberal 
idea,  hinder  the  development  of  peoples  and  thus  leave  such  a  deplor- 
able impression  on  the  whole  of  the  XIX.  century. 

The  attempts  to  justify  the  crime  of  which  Poland  was  the 
victim,  corrupted  the  minds  and  moral  sense  of  the  peoples,  slavery 
and  tyranny  imposed  on  a  nation  made  the  idea  of  violence  common- 
place and  the  realization  of  the  desires  of  despotic  governments,  who 
were  using  this  vigorous  method  with  their  own  "subjects",  was 
made  easier.  Then,  the  States  hastened  to  enlarge  their  military 
forces,  some  because  they  feared  the  fate  of  Poland,  and  others  be- 
cause they  were  tempted  by  aggressive  policies,  to  satisfy  their  ap- 
petites whetted  by  the  acquisition  of  Poldand. . .  .AH  this:  antago- 
nisms awakened  by  the  division  of  the  spoils,  the  immoderate  in- 
crease of  one  on  the  ruins  of  others,  the  building  up  of  the  gigantic 
Russia  on  the  ashes  of  Poland ;  all  this  was  the  supreme  reason  for 
the  universal  armament,  so  characteristic  of  the  XIX.  century. 

"Russia  with  millions  of  servile  people  at  her  disposition," 
writes  Professor  Waclaw  Sobieski,  "could,  because  of  the  partitions 
of  Poland,  advance  far  into  Europe;  she  advanced  yet  farther  in 
1815,  and  reached  its  very  heart,  in  1831,  after  having  crushed  the 
Polish  army.  In  place  of  the  old  Republic,  that  had  no  wish  to  keep 
up  a  standing  army,  it  was  Russia  that  entered  the  lists  and  spread 
terror  by  the  continual  onward  movement  of  her  troops  and  forced 
the  neighboring  States  to  put  themselves  on  guard  and  keep  up  their 
standing  armies. 

The  partitions  of  Poland  hastened  in  yet  another  way  the  arma- 
ments. Every  violent  conquest  necessitates  watchfulness  over  the 
occupied  territories  and  the  subjection  of  the  vanquished  population 
— especially  of  a  population  so  imbued  with  freedom  as  the  Poles 
were.  The  German  military  writer.  Max  Jahns,*  expressly  declares 
that  "Prussia  was  forced  to  enlarge  its  armies  because  of  the  occu- 
pation of  the  Polish  Republic".    Frederic  William  II.,  in  1795,  insti- 


*  Max  Jahns — Heeresverfassungen  und  Volkerleben. 

64 


tuted  a  "Commission  of  Military  Organization"*  that  not  only  felt 
the  need  of  enlarging  the  army  but  also  of  instituting  a  general  re- 
cruitment. 

The  exhaustion  caused  by  the  Napoleonic  wars  was  not  yet  over 
when  it  became  necessary  to  apply  themselves  to  watching  the  Poles 
who  waited  only  a  favorable  moment  to  regain  their  freedom. 

Nicholas  I.  could  not  master  his  impatience  or  his  anger  when 
he  exclaimed:  (1831)  "only  to  keep  the  Poles  in  hand  I  am  obliged, 
at  great  expense,  to  maintain  a  whole  army". 

The  advance  made  by  the  Russians  west  of  the  Vistula,  after 
183 1,  filled  the  Prussians  with  such  concern  that,  contrary  to  their 
custom,  instead  of  disbanding  the  conscripts  after  their  term  of  serv- 
ice, they  kept  them  under  the  colors  two  years  longer. 

When  the  principle  of  nationalities  and  of  national  unions  ap- 
peared in  Europe,  electrifying  once  again  the  Poles,  Alexander  II. 
put  four  army  corps  on  a  war- footing  and  re-enforced  all  the  gar- 
risons in  Poland.  These  measures  did  not  fail  to  awaken  the  dis- 
trust of  Prussia.  The  Prussian  Regent,  William,  mobilized  troops 
at  random  (1859),  doubled  his  permanent  army,  lengthened  the  dura- 
tion of  military  service  and  made  it  obligatory. 

These  are  facts  that  prove  in  an  obvious  manner  the  recoil  of 
the  dismemberment  of  Poland  on  the  development  of  contemporary 
militarism.  As  Lx)rd  Eversley  says,  "the  armed  peace — an  indirect 
but  essential  consequence  of  the  subjection  of  a  great  people — be 
coming  amplified  by  other  factors,  has  in  the  course  of  time  taken 
on  huge  dimensions  and  hindered  the  progress  of  civilization  of  all 
the  peoples  of  Europe". 

The  States,  each  and  all,  armed  themselves  and  the  world  in 
truth,  became  a  stage  for  "a  competition  of  armaments". 

The  greater  part  of  the  population,  from  the  social  point  of 
view,  was  turned  from  productive  work.  The  budgets  destined  for 
the  development  of  industry,  of  public  instruction  and  hygiene  were 
notably  reduced  in  favor  of  military  budgets,  that  more  and  more 
consumed  the   State   revenues. 

The  course  followed  by  the  European  States,  after  the  down- 
fall of  Poland,  so  authoritatively  described  by  von  Rotteck,  "led  the 
powers  to  keep  six  million  men  under  arms,  condemning  them  to 
inactivity  during  the  strength  of  their  manhood".  It  is  the  people  who 
have  been  obliged  to  furnish  these  six  million  men  and  it  has  been 
the  people  who  have  been  charged  with  the  up  keep  of  these  armies, 

*  Immediat-Militar  Organisations-Kommission. 

65 


costing  billions.  And  finally,  this  State  militarism  has  ended  in  the 
monstrous  massacre  that  has  covered  the  whole  of  Europe  with 
blood  and  destroyed  so  much  of  what  had  been  created  by  human 
activity  during  generations. 

This  cataclysm  has  surpassed  all  preconceptions :  at  the  end  of 
the  third  year  forty  million  men  have  been  called  to  arms,  at  an 
expense  of  three  hundred  billion  francs ;  there  have  been  five  million 
men  killed,  twelve  million  more  wounded  and  three  and  a  half  million 

invahded The  civilian  mortality  behind  the  lines  increases  in  a 

terrifying  manner.  "The  infinite  distress"  that  Charles  von  Rotteck 
foresaw  is  an  accomplished  fact. 

Sobs  are  choking  millions  of  breasts ;  millions  of  families  have 
lost  their  support,  the  spectre  of  death  advances  over  the  ruined 
cities  and  villages.  The  spectre  of  famine  rises  up  threatening  the 
Europe  that  yesterday  was  so  proud  of  her  wealth.  The  sacrifices 
that  war  imposes  on  all  peoples  surpass  imagination. 

The  obligation  to  make  everything  subordinate  to  the  aims  of 
war  extends  to  all  domains  of  life.  The  individual  has  been  repressed 
to  an  inconceivable  degree,  until  he  has  become  nothing  but  the 
wheel  of  a  monstrous  engine. 

Under  the  empire  of  the  instinct  of  self-preservation,  humanity 
can  only  face  with  horror  the  possibility  of  a  renewal  of  such  a 
catastrophe.  She  demands  the  revision  of  the  system  that  has 
caused  such  disaster,  the  institutions  of  tribunals  of  arbitration, 
that  being  subject  to  international  control  will  decide  disputes,  and 
lastly  the  elaboration  of  an  international  penal  code,  according  to 
which  every  attempt  to  disturb  the  peace  will  be  considered  as  the 
greatest  crime. 

And  now,  just  one  more  glance  backward. 

In  the  perspective  of  time  we  see  the  resplendent  Polish 
Republic;  in  the  olden  time  so  full  of  vitality  and  later  so 
brutally  destroyed.  But  in  the  Polish  heart  this  Republic  has  never 
ceased  to  live — this  Republic  that  two  centuries  ago  had  already  real- 
ized many  dreams  of  modern  humanity,  that  never  manifested 
rapacious  instincts,  that  detested  all  shedding  of  blood,  that  in- 
structed her  parliament  to  decide  on  war  and  peace,  that  put  real 
value  on  the  conception  of  equity  in  the  rules  of  international  rela- 
tionships, that  gave  the  name  of  "Great"  to  Kings  who  were  "con- 
structors" and  not  to  Kings  who  were  "plunderers",  that  taught  the 
young  not  to  confound  treachery  with  politics  or  heroism  with  vio- 
lence, that  never  persecuted  people  for  their  origin  or  their  faith, 

66 


that  freed  people  and  confederated  them  maintaining  the  equality  of 
rights,  that  was  an  island  of  freedom  in  the  midst  of  a  sea  of  abso- 
lutism, that  respected  the  rights  of  the  individual ;  that  placed  Law 
above  the  Crown,  that  was  centuries  in  advance  of  other  States,  not 
only  in  realizing  the  different  principles  for  which  they  struggled 
later  on,  but  also,  in  realizing  a  number  of  those  that  other  peoples 
are  only  just  now  beginning  to  foresee. 

Considering  all  these  original  creations  emanating  from  the 
political  genius  of  the  Polish  people,  we  can  now  understand,  face  to 
face  with  the  appalling  reality,  what  humanity  has  lost  by  the  dis- 
appearance of  the  Polish  State  and  how  greatly  the  absence  of 
Poland's  help  has  been  felt  in  the  realization  of  the  common  aims 
toward  which  civilization  tends. 


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